THE United States is ready to help the government rescue three Red Cross volunteers who were kidnapped in Sulu last week, US Ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney said yesterday.

?If there is any information we have or any way we can provide anything that leads to their safe return, we stand ready to do that,? Kenney said in Malaca?ang after talking to Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

?These are international Red Cross workers. They should be returned safely now, and those who captured them should be brought to justice and held responsible.?

Teodoro thanked the governments of Switzerland and Italy for not entertaining the alleged ransom demand by the kidnappers.

?We are thankful that they are not working on their own despite pressure from their homeland to have their citizens released immediately,? he said.

?There is no independent effort on their part.?

Swiss Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutter said his government hoped the Red Cross workers would be released soon, even as he echoed the Philippine government?s no-ransom policy.

?I can just make a very general statement that we appreciate the support of the Philippine government,? Sutter said.

?We hope it shows some results, but all players have to coordinate closely to achieve positive results.?

Meanwhile, military chief Alexander Yano yesterday rejected a demand from the volunteers? kidnappers to halt rescue operations in Jolo, a stronghold of Al Qaida-linked militants.

He said easing the pressure on the kidnappers would allow them to further evade government forces in Jolo, where the volunteers were seized on Thursday.

Red Cross officials said the hostages?Swiss Andreas Notter, 38; Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62; and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, 37?had been calling colleagues in Manila every day since Friday, telling them they were unharmed and that their captors wanted the military to halt operations.

Senator Richard Gordon, the Philippine National Red Cross chairman, said the hostages told the ICRC head of delegation that their abductors wanted the military to halt pursuit operations.

Some 1,000 marines and police have been scouring the jungles of the predominantly Muslim island, where the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group has waged a bloody campaign including ransom kidnappings, beheadings of hostages and bombings.

?I guess pressure by the military should be maintained [and] sustained so that we can contain them in an area,? Yano told reporters. Joyce Pangco Pa?ares with AP