No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which also injured more than 20 passengers. The device on the inter-town bus went off while travelling through the town of Matalam in Cotabato province, police said.

Authorities said they believe the person who left the bomb in an overhead luggage rack got off the bus before it arrived in Matalam, a town of around 60,000, at around 10:30 in the morning.

"Eight people died on the spot and one at a local hospital where most of the bus passengers were treated for shrapnel wounds," army Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara said.

"Our soldiers are helping the police investigate the bus explosion. We're still trying to establish the motive for the attack."

No individual or group claimed responsibility but police said the bus operator, the Rural Transit Bus Co., had had received extortion letters demanding money prior to the bomb blast.

The military is on constant alert in the area because extortion isn't uncommon on Mindanao and several other southern Philippines islands which are home to numerous insurgents and religious extremist groups.

In March 11 soldiers and several guerrillas, including women, died in gun battles.

Marines killed seven suspected members of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group during a dawn raid on Saisi, one of many small islands making up the Sulu Island archipelago province in southwestern Philippines.

The military said the guerrillas may have had close links with Zulkipli Bin Hir, also known as Marwan, a Malaysian and a high-ranking leader of the another terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah.

Marwan is believed to be training Abu Sayyaf operatives in bomb-making while in hiding on Mindanao where Islamic separatists have been fighting government troops for several decades.

The United States has offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Marwan, a U.S.-trained engineer accused by the Philippine of involvement in a number of deadly bombings in the country.

Mindanao also is where one of the Philippines worst mass killings occurred last November. Around 200 people have been arrested and implicated in the massacre of 57 people, including at least 30 journalists in a roadside killing.

The killings appear to be a clan power struggle centered on local elections at the time in Maguindanao province within the autonomous Muslim region of Mindanao.

The dead were on their way to the elections office in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao to register their candidate, Toto Mangudadatu, who was to stand against members of the Ampatuan clan.

Most of bodies, as well as the people's vehicles, were pushed into an open pit and buried using a bulldozer.

Members of the local Ampatuan family, that has run the town for years, are on trial for allegedly organizing the shootings, in which some local police involvement also has been alleged.

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