For the first time in a three-week-old hostage crisis, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited a Muslim rebel stronghold on Monday and said the military would continue to attack the guerrillas amid strong indications they have killed one of their American captives.

Hours later, Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Radical Abu Sayyaf, said that he was willing to negotiate the release some of his two dozen hostages. But he set two conditions, including one that the government was likely reject, an immediate end to the military's pursuit.
Under tight military security, Arroyo traveled to Lamitan, a town on the southern island of Basilan where a battle between soldiers and the radical Abu Sayyaf rebels heavily damaged a church and a hospital early in the crisis.
She hugged a weeping woman whose daughter was recently kidnapped by the Muslim guerrillas and told the husband of a missing midwife, “I'm sorry. We will do everything to get her back.”

Bureau Report