MANILA, Philippines?The military Sunday vowed to crush the extremist Abu Sayyaf group by the end of the year.

"We are confident we can handle this problem of the Abu Sayyaf," said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. He said the military will launch an "all-out effort" to defeat the al-Qaida-linked group responsible for the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines.

Following the release last week of Italian Eugenio Vagni, the last of three International Committee of the Red Cross workers abducted by the Abu Sayyaf on Jan. 15, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. ordered the military to step up offensives against the terrorist group.

The military was apparently encouraged by a "cue" from Malacañang that there would be no political negotiations for amnesty to the group.

"We have received the final word that there will be no amnesty given to the Abu Sayyaf and we will take this cue from our national leadership to carry out an all-out effort against the group," said Brawner.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross, earlier proposed an amnesty for elderly members of the bandit group but this was rejected by Malacañang.

The government has opened peace talks with a bigger Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but the Abu Sayyaf is not covered by the talks.

Citing Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban's report, Brawner said "internal quarrels" in the Abu Sayyaf would help the military meet its yearend goal.

Brawner, in an interview over dzBB radio, estimated the Abu Sayyaf membership at 300, down from more than 700 several years back.

"Their ranks have gone down and while they have some new recruits, it is mostly young boys lured by the promise of monetary reward and the bearing of arms," Brawner said.

As part of the stepped-up operations against the Abu Sayyaf, soldiers will be more visible in urban communities in southwestern and central Mindanao. They will carry out road projects, medical missions and other civil military operations, he said.

"There is a difference between an all-out war and an all-out effort," the spokesperson pointed out.

"What we will do in the next few months is not purely combat operations but also developmental efforts," he said, adding that it was vital to address the root cause of terrorism troubling Mindanao.

A report posted on the official website of the US Pacific Command describes the Abu Sayyaf as "a cross between a chilling gang of bandits and a franchise operation of al-Qaida."

"Since the early 1990s, it has terrorized the southern Philippines with kidnappings, bombs and outright massacres; it has also been linked to several international terrorist plots and militants," the report noted.

More recent reports said the Abu Sayyaf, under new leadership, has been able to link up with the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah, said to be behind a regional Islamist terror campaign, including two recent bombings in Jakarta.