Militants with links to Al-Qaeda released an ailing Italian Red Cross worker Saturday from six months of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Eugenio Vagni, 63, appeared to be in good health as his captors handed him over to a provincial vice-governor on southern Jolo Island, said the head of the Philippine Red Cross, Richard Gordon.

"I am happy. At least he is safe, and we can return him back to his family," Gordon said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview with Italian state television that no ransom had been paid for Vagni's release.

Gordon said that Lady Ann Sahidulla, vice-governor of the province of Sulu, was asked by the militants to escort Vagni to safety and that she "donated" the equivalent of $1,041 US to an intermediary, but he stressed this was not a ransom.

Frattini also expressed gratitude that no government attacks were launched to free the abductee.

Vagni, now in the care of the Italian Embassy in the Philippines, will be sent to Italy as soon as possible, Frattini said.

The aid worker, who suffers from hypertension and a hernia, was kidnapped along with two colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross after inspecting a Jolo jail water project Jan. 15.

The two others, a Swiss and a Filipino, had been freed earlier by the militants. But the group, known as Abu Sayyaf, held on to Vagni for months, entering into on-and-off negotiations for his release while government troops maintained military pressure on the gunmen.

Abu Sayyaf, which has about 400 fighters, is listed by Canada and the United States as a terrorist organizations because its bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings of hostages have rattled the southern Philippines for decades. The group is suspected of receiving funds and training from al-Qaeda.

The group and its allies have turned to kidnappings to make money in recent years, raising concerns among Philippine and U.S. security officials that ransom payments could revive the group, which has been weakened by years of U.S.-backed military offensives.