MANILA, Oct 7 - Philippine security forces arrested a Muslim rebel suspected of links with regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah and accused of a role in an airport bomb attack last year, an army official said on Thursday.

A combined team of army and police intelligence officials caught the man in the district of Paco in the capital Manila on Wednesday, said the official, who declined to be named.

"He was brought to an army camp for tactical interrogation," said the official, adding the man was a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group talking peace with the government.

The military said the man could be part of a small radical faction in the MILF. The arrest came ahead of the arrival of peace monitors from Malaysia and Brunei to preserve a year-long ceasefire in the southern Philippines.

A MILF spokesman said the group wanted to resolve the issue quickly.

"The ceasefire committee should look into this arrest as soon as possible," Eid Kabalu said by telephone. "We have to clear our name in the face of this serious allegation. Peace talks are due to resume soon so there's a need to resolve this issue soon."

The group, blamed for the March 2003 bombing of an airport in Davao City on Mindanao island, was suspected of an active link with the JI, which used the island as a training base and sanctuary, Philippine security officials say.

To ease peace talks with the MILF, the government last month withdrew 185 cases filed against its members over bomb attacks at the airport and a wharf that killed 38 people and wounded 100.