ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Police in the southern Philippines said on Sunday that they had arrested three members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and thwarted a bomb attack.

Intelligence operatives intercepted the men on Thursday night on the island of Basilan province, a known hotbed of the extremists, regional police said in a statement.

Police said that they seized two motorcycles, one of which was rigged with explosives, as well as handguns. They said that the three allegedly planned to set off the bomb in a heavy populated urban area.

The suspects were members of a squad responsible for carrying out sabotage attacks to divert military and police attention as other members stage kidnappings, police said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing in 2004 that killed more than 100.

The group is also behind a series of high-profile kidnappings of foreign and local tourists as well as businessmen.

It is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organizations. A number of American advisers have been rotating in the southern Philippines for the past decade helping local counterparts to try to crush the group.

A number of foreign hostages are believed held by the Abu Sayyaf in the south, including two European bird-watchers seized in February and an Australian abducted last December.

Three Filipino Marines searching for the hostages were killed in a clash with the Abu Sayyaf in another island in the south last month.