Beijing  - China might convert more naval vessels to patrol disputed areas of the South China Sea to counter illegal fishing and "other countries' unfounded territorial claims," state media said Thursday.

China faces new "challenges and complications" in the South China Sea, the official China Daily quoted a senior fisheries official as saying, pointing to recent claims by the Philippines and Malaysia to disputed islands and a standoff with a US naval surveillance ship.

Manila  - The Philippine military said Thursday that it was pulling back troops away from Muslim militants holding captive three international Red Cross staff on a southern island after the kidnappers threatened to behead one of the hostages.

A leader of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels also promised to a Philippine Red Cross official to free one of the hostages if government forces move away from their encampment in Indanan town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - Three international Red Cross staff held captive by Muslim militants in the southern Philippines are still alive and unharmed after deadly clashes between their captors and government troops, a local Red Cross official said Wednesday.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said all reports from Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, indicate that none of the hostages were hurt in the fighting since Monday.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Two soldiers were killed and two more wounded in a clash with unidentified gunmen in the southern Philippines, an army brigade commander said Wednesday.

The fighting erupted Tuesday evening when soldiers securing a highway in Baloi town in Lanao del Norte province, 810 kilometres south of Manila, encountered an undetermined number of heavily armed men, Colonel Benito De Leon said.

De Leon said there were no reported casualties on the enemy side.

Manila - A Philippine man nearly caused an air disaster in an eastern city when he used an airport runway to teach his girlfriend to drive just as a passenger plane was about to land, a local official said Tuesday.

A Cebu Pacific Air flight carrying 80 passengers was descending at the weekend at the airport in Legazpi City, 360 kilometres south-east of Manila, when the pilot quickly pulled up after he saw a passenger van moving fast on the runway.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal told the Philippine Star newspaper that the van was driven by the son of the city aviation chief who was teaching his girlfriend how to drive.

Manila  - The Philippines' unemployment rate rose to 7.7 per cent in January as tens of thousands of Filipinos lost their jobs or failed to find work amid the global economic crisis, the government said Tuesday.

The National Statistics Office said the January unemployment rate was up from the 7.4 per cent recorded in the same month last year.

The actual number of jobless people increased to 2.85 million in January from 2.67 million a year ago, according to the agency.