Washington  - The United States offered 2.5 million dollars Tuesday in rewards for information leading to the capture or conviction of three Filipinos with alleged ties to the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.

The US State Department will pay up to 1 million dollars for Radullan Sahiron, an alleged senior leader of the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to al-Qaeda, and Abdul Basit Usman, a suspected bomb-making expert who is suspected of links to an Indonesia-based regional terrorist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah.

The State Department offered 500,000 dollars in connection with Khair Mundos, accused of providing financial help to Abu Sayyaf by transferring al-Qaeda funding.

The State Department accused Sahiron of playing a role in the May 2001 kidnapping of three US citizens and 17 Filipinos at a tourist resort in Palawan, Philippines, and said he continues to plot attacks on the island of Mindanao.

Mundos was arrested in 2004 on terrorist-related money laundering charges but later escaped from prison.  (dpa)