ZAMBOANGA, Oct 21 (AFP) - One Filipino soldier was killed on Wednesday when a home-made bomb believed planted by Muslim extremists went off on a restive southern Philippine island, a military spokesman said.

The explosion killed a Marine officer and wounded one of his men as well as a civilian guide in Patikul town on Jolo island, where two US soldiers died in a similar blast on September 29, said Major Ramon David Hontiveros.

He said the incident was likely the work of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group that has also been blamed for the bombing that killed the two American soldiers.

The soldiers were on patrol in Patikul, a former Abu Sayyaf hideout, when the bomb went off, Hontiveros said.

On Monday, suspected Abu Sayyaf members kidnapped a school principal in Patikul town.

The Abu Sayyaf, set up in the 1990s allegedly with money from Al-Qaeda, has been blamed for a series of bombings and kidnappings.

Small groups of US military advisers are stationed on Jolo and elsewhere in the southern Philippines to train troops in how to combat the Abu Sayyaf. (AFP)