Seven policemen and two soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by suspected Muslim guerrillas on the restive southern Philippine island of Basilan, officials said on Sunday.

In the latest incident, seven policemen travelling in a government vehicle were killed in an ambush by a hundred Muslim gunmen in the town of Sumisip on Sunday, said police spokesman Superintendent Danilo Bacas.

A civilian who was guiding the police was wounded in the raid.

The attackers may have been either from the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist group, Basilan police commander Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar said.

However Bacas said renegade MILF members were the likely culprits.

On Saturday, two soldiers were shot dead by suspected Abu Sayyaf members as they stepped outside of their camp to buy cigarettes in Tipo-tipo town, said military spokesman Colonel Romeo Brawner.

The soldiers were on the island to help repair damaged schools, he added.

The Philippine police meanwhile said they were dispatching 226 police commandos to Basilan to bolster security forces there.

Asked about the latest attack, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebels' leaders will check whether their forces were involved in the incidents.

"Our forces on the ground have autonomy. They can do whatever they want but it?s not sanctioned by the entire organization," Kabalu said.

Basilan is known as a hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group that intelligence agencies have linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network.

The Abu Sayyaf have been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history and have kidnapped numerous Filipino nationals and foreigners in recent years. The group is still holding an Italian Red Cross worker they kidnapped in January on the nearby island of Jolo.

However the 12,000-strong MILF, a separatist group which signed a ceasefire with the government in 2003 also has forces on Basilan and many of their fighters are known to be related by blood to the Abu Sayyaf.

MILF forces on the main southern island of Mindanao in August last year broke the ceasefire and attacked several towns and villages, sparking a humanitarian crisis that has left tens of thousands homeless and hundreds dead.