MANILA (AFP) - Recent deadly bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines appear to be linked, and suggest regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah may be active again, Manila's national security chief said Thursday.

The "character and intent" of three recent bomb attacks on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao that left eight dead and over 100 injured has all the markings of JI, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said.

He said bombs used in the Mindanao attacks were similar to those used in last Friday's bombings of two luxury hotels in Jakarta that killed seven people.

"We cannot disregard the possibility of a JI resurgence in the region," Gonzales told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

"We can easily conclude that the bombings in Mindanao and in Jakarta are connected. The character of the bombs are the same," Gonzales said.

Indonesian and Philippine authorities were now exchanging intelligence data to track down those responsible for both sets of attacks, he said.

Senior counter-terrorism officials in Indonesia have said the Jakarta attacks are the suspected work of Islamist fanatics linked to JI.

The group's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

The bombings in Mindanao - one outside a Catholic cathedral in Cotabato city -  could have been carried out by one of an estimated 20 to 30 foreign JI militants with links to the Abu Sayyaf who are believed to be in the area, he said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants which has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines.

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