COTABATO CITY -- Government security forces have foiled another bomb plot when they discovered an incendiary bomb planted near a store in Datu Odin Sinsuat in the former Shariff Kabunsuan, two days before the scheduled arrival there of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, police said.

Arroyo was expected to talk to officials of the defunct province during her visit and with military officials concerning mounting concerns on security in Central Mindanao. (The Supreme Court nullified the law that created Shariff Kabunsuan as a province. After the ruling, its covered areas reverted to other provinces of Mindanao.)

Chief Inspector Dante Mama, Datu Odin Sinsuat police chief, said the incendiary bomb was found in the village of Awang, on Monday, near the military headquarters that the President would be visiting on Wednesday.

"It was left by unidentified men in front of a store," he said on Tuesday, without specifying the store's distance from the camp of the military's 6th Infantry Division.

Mama said military experts later defused the bomb.