Sabah police commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman confirmed that the families of two Malaysians who were kidnapped from a seafood restaurant in Sandakan last May 14 had received three telephone calls from their abductors.

Besides the demand for ransom, he said, the caller also asked for money to pay for the victims' food and beverage and also for medical cost of one of the victim, Thien Nyuk Fun,50, who has diabetes.

"This was confirmed by the families of the victims. Both the victims are safe and being held by the abductors who move from one island to another in the southern Philippines to avoid detection by security forces," he told reporters after closing a basic training programme for auxiliary policemen here today.

Thien is the mother of the owner of Ocean King Restaurant, where the kidnap took place. The other kidnap victim was a customer at the restaurant, Bernard Then Ted Fen, 39.

They were kidnapped by four armed men who stormed into the restaurant at about 7.45pm last May 14.

Commenting a report by the Philippines media on the death of a member of the group which master-minded the kidnapping in Sandakan, Jalaluddin said Mindas Muktadil was killed in a cross-fire with the security forces in Jolo Island.