MANILA, Feb. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The notorious kidnap-for-ranso m group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for an explosion that triggered a fire on a ferry leaving up to 180 people still missing since Friday, a local television report said.

    Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sulaiman told radio RMM that they did it in retaliation for alleged violent acts by the government in the southern Philippines, the ABS-CBN news channel reported.

    Officials downplayed Sulaiman's claim although they did not rule out a terror attack on the Superferry 14, which caught fire before dawn Friday soon after it left Manila for the central city of Bacolod, leaving one dead and 12 others injured. Survivors saidthey heard a huge explosion prior to the fire.

    The sea mishap happened on the same day when a local court in Manila sentenced two Abu Sayyaf members, including a brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, to 40 years in jail for kidnapping American Jeffrey Schilling in the southern island of Jolo in August 2000. Schilling was rescued eight months later. 

    The Abu Sayyaf, which gained international notoriety after it abducted 21 mostly foreign tourists at the Malaysian resort islandof Sipadan in April 2000, was branded by both Washington and Manila as a terrorist group with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network following the terror attacks in the United States onSept. 11, 2001.

    Meanwhile, rescuers boarded the smoldering ferry Sunday to search for victims of the fire trapped inside the half-submerged vessel, but found nothing in their initial entry. Heat prevented rescuers and investigators from entering the ship on Saturday to probe the wreckage.

    Earlier, authorities have reconciled conflicting accounts of the number of people aboard the ill-fated ship, confirming that ithad carried 899 passengers and crew members, 20 more than earlier reported.

    The number of still missing has been raised to 180 from the earlier reported 112 also because some of the rescued had been counted twice, Philippine Coast Guard commandant Arthur Gosingan said.

    The official number of the rescued has now been corrected to 718 as against the 766 released earlier, he said.

    Gina Virtusio, spokeswoman of the WG&A, owners of the Superferry 14, also confirmed that only one person died in the tragedy, correcting her early announcement that two were killed.

    President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered government agencies Saturday to continue search and rescue operations for the missing until all are accounted for. She also ordered a thorough investigation of the incident.

    Investigators are study three possible causes of the fire, namely an explosion at the engine room, explosion or short circuitat the ship's tourist dining area, and act of terrorism. Enditem