MANILA (AFP) - THE alleged mastermind of an election-linked massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines blamed Muslim rebels, in a dramatic interview from behind bars aired on local television on Friday.

Shortly after he was flown to Manila on Thursday night and thrown into a cell at the National Bureau of Investigation, Andal Ampatuan Jr repeated comments made when he surrendered earlier in the day that he was innocent.

Ampatuan accused the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a militant organisation that has been waging a rebellion in the south of the country that has claimed more than 150,000 lives since 1978, of being behind the massacre.

'Umbrakato and the MILF are responsible,' he alleged. He was referring to senior MILF leader Ameril Umbrakato, who is being sought by authorities for deadly raids across the southern island of Mindanao last year that left scores of civilians dead and caused half a million people to flee their homes.

But MILF spokesman, Eid Kabalu, denied Ampatuan's allegations on Friday, insisting that the 12,000-member guerrilla force had nothing to do with the murders.

'This is an attempt to condition the minds of the people,' Kabalu said over ABS-CBN television. Philippine authorities have never mentioned Umbrakato or any other MILF leader as a suspect in the massacre. They have said Ampatuan Jr is likely going to be charged over the killings on Friday.

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