Philippine military said on Saturday it is trying to foil terrorist attacks in Metro Manila, after it got information that bombers are targeting a shopping mall and a public square in the capital region.

Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon said the military has received information that terrorists are planning to bomb a shopping mall in the financial district of Makati City in Metro Manila and the Luneta park in downtown Manila City, where visiting foreign leaders usually lay wreaths at a monument dedicated to the national hero Jose Rizal.

The information was provided by eight members of a "sleeper terrorist cell" who surrendered to the government recently in Manila, Esperon said.

The military chief said the "sleeper terrorist cell" was under direct command of Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and its local ally Abu Sayyaf Group, he said.

The focus of Armed Forces' attention is JI bombers Dulmatin and Omar Patek, who are held responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing in which 202 people were killed, he added.

The two men are believed to be hiding somewhere in the southern region of Mindanao and they are still being pursued by thousands of government troops in the island province of Sulu, west of the region since August last year.

Three were killed on Friday in a Mindanao bombing attack when an explosion shook a crowded bus terminal. The local police have taken terrorists as the main suspects in the bombing.

In 2004, nearly 100 people were killed when an inter-island ferry was bombed at the Manila Bay. Several people were killed when a bus was hit by a blast February 2005 in Makati City. The Philippine government said Abu Sayyaf Group was behind both of the attacks in the capital region.