Unlike most previous military revolts in the Philippines which were backed by heavy artillery and ground-attack aircraft, the officers in the latest uprising used "dangerous explosives" as their "weapon and bargaining chip," a security official said.

"If they had used the explosives, the potential for destruction of a key part of the Makati financial centre was enormous," the official told AFP. "But I don't think they had cold-blooded intentions although they were hot-headed young officers."

Four of the leaders who led a 300-strong force in a standoff with pro-government troops in the heart of Manila's financial district during the revolt Sunday had received anti-terrorist training from the US Special Forces last year.

They underwent sniper training, night fighting as well as counter-terrorist tactics in the southern Philippines, said a senior military official, who asked not to be named.

The mission was part of US military assistance to the Philippines, a key ally in Washington's global anti-terror campaign.

The military rebels had assembled "C4" and "TNT" explosives at strategic points around the shopping and apartment complex in Makati in the wee hours of Sunday before challenging the security forces to get them.

The C4 explosive is very powerful and usually held by militaries while the TNT explosives are mostly used by mining companies.

Journalists at the entrance of the Oakwood apartment block, the operations centre of the rebels, saw one big crate marked "high explosives" with many wires attached to it.

When the rebellion ended and the rebel soldiers agreed to return to their barracks, they opened the box to show journalists that the explosives inside were "genuine."

"We put these to defend ourselves. They had put a death warrant on us," navy officer Antonio Trillanes, the self-styled leader of the group, told reporters when his men were assembling the devices at parking lots, buildings and hallway corners early Sunday.

The rebels occupied the area hours after President Arroyo exposed their so-called plot to overthrow her administration and launched a hunt for them with a warning they would face the "maximum" penalty.

Being in the elite groups of the military, the battle-tested rebel officers had access to special weapons and explosives but officials have suggested that some of the equipment they used could have come from private groups.

The mutineers apparently rented a room at the posh Oakwood condominium beforehand and had sneaked communications equipment into the room in preparation for the coup attempt, defence officials said.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes on Tuesday presented documents showing expensive communications equipment was shipped into the country by a political group which he said had links to the soldiers.

"These are expensive communications and supplies which are not regular supplies of the armed forces," Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

Military chief General Narciso Abaya said a van recovered at the scene was intended to be used in a raid to seize weapons from a naval outpost. The van has been traced to one of the lieutenants.

Maps seized from the Oakwood condomimium indicated that the soldiers planned to occupy a larger area of Makati stretching close to the Stock Exchange of the Philippines, officials said.

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