The Philippine security forces have arrested a suspect who attempted to use an improvised bomb to blow off a small airport in southern Philippines, the military said on Nov. 19.

Col. Eugenio Clemen, commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade, said the suspect Almid Jundam was a member of the radical Abu Sayyaf group, which is believed to have links with Al Qaeda network in the Middle East.

Jundam was arrested in a village of Jolo town in Sulu province on the morning of Nov. 18 with a bag containing a wig and a camouflage uniform.

Clemen said Jundam is responsible for the setting up of an improvised explosive device at the Sulu's airport in Jolo last Nov. 15.

The plan was aborted after the bomb was found and timely disarmed by military explosives and ordnance disposal personnel.

Jundam has also confessed to be responsible in the bombing at the Zamboanga City cathedral last year. No-one was killed or injured in the attack.

The 370-member Abu Sayyaf group was a major security threat in the Philippines for a string of blood attacks it carried out in public, including the 2004 Manila Bay blast that killed more than 100 civilians.

But the group's size and strength have dwindled in the past two years as the government launched intensified operations to eradicate it.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed to neutralize the group by 2010.