JOLO, Sulu--Abu Sayyaf gunmen will decide today whether to free an ailing German woman among 21 hostages, presidential adviser Roberto Aventajado said yesterday after negotiators made face-to-face contact with the kidnappers for the first time in 17 days.

''They said they needed another 24 hours to decide on that,'' said Aventajado, sent by President Estrada here with a jet to fly German Renate Wallert, 57, to a hospital in Manila if necessary.

Aventajado made the disclosure early evening after top government negotiator Ghazali Ibrahim and former Libyan Ambassador to the Philippines Rajab Azzarouq met with the Abu Sayyaf leaders beside a coastal highway near the town of Patikul.

''What they said is that they will consult with their leaders and that they will come back with us again tomorrow,'' Aventajado told reporters, optimistic despite the failure to obtain Wallert's release.

The rebels have not put forward any demands but gave the negotiators an ''assurance that her (Wallert's) health has improved a lot,'' he said.

Government doctor Nelsa Amin, who accompanied the negotiators, described the meeting as ''cordial,'' with the rebels even offering coffee and native cake for lunch. Azzarouq said the atmosphere was ''very relaxed.''

The negotiators were not taken to see the hostages, Aventajado said.

But according to Amin, Azzarouq was allowed to hike up to the rebel hideout to meet with the Abu Sayyaf leaders. The kidnappers had sent word earlier Wednesday that they wished to meet with Azzarouq.

''Maybe we have to be little bit patient but I'm quite optimistic,'' said Aventajado, who under the codename ''Sultan'' negotiated the release of Italian missionary Luciano Benedetti from the hands of Moro kidnappers in 1998.

Azzarouq was similarly upbeat, though he and Ibrahim had returned empty-handed. ''I'm still quite optimistic,'' said the former Libyan ambassador to the Philippines.

Yesterday's meeting took place after senior European Union envoy Javier Solana, the former Nato secretary general, left Manila at the end of an overnight visit during which he obtained Mr. Estrada's assurance on the safety of the hostages.

Before he left, Solana was also hopeful that Wallert would be freed soon. ''I do hope very much that we will see her soon,'' he said.

The negotiators had asked the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers to release the German teacher on humanitarian grounds because she was suffering from hypertension and had possibly suffered two strokes.

Government officials say they expect Ibrahim and Azzarouq to make a breakthrough in efforts to win the release of the hostages, who are being held in appalling conditions.

But Aventajado refused to give a timetable for the success of overall negotiations, saying: ''In any process like this, we don't expect doing this thing will be easy.''

At the team's first stop on the way to the ''coastal'' area where the meeting took place, Amin said, she saw about 70 Abu Sayyaf rebels.

At their second stop, she said, there were around 500 rebels.

The doctor had brought medicine, oxygen, food, clothing and chocolate for the captives. She was also taking stretchers in case the rebels agreed to free Wallert and Stephane Loisy, a French man with a urinary tract infection.

Instead of releasing the hostages, the rebels just took the medicines, food and clothes intended for the hostages, according to Amin.

She said a rebel medic had told her that Wallert no longer needed a stretcher and could stand.

Amin said she talked to Dr. Abu Bula, allegedly one of the leaders of the kidnappers and an employee of the health department in Sulu, who said he had administered paramedic treatment to Wallert.

Bula told Amin that the German was ''more or less in normal condition.''

Wallert and her German husband and son, two Filipinos, nine Malaysians, a French couple, two Finns, a South African couple and a Lebanese were snatched from a Malaysian island resort on April 23.

The Philippines had insisted that the crisis was a purely domestic problem and rejected foreign offers of assistance, but Azzarouq has the government's blessing for his efforts.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said Azzarouq had developed contacts with Moro separatist groups in Mindanao and had great personal relations with a number of leaders.

''I think he will play a great part. He is respected by leaders on both sides,'' Mercado said Tuesday.

Azzarouq had helped broker the freedom of four foreigners kidnapped by Moro kidnappers--Benedetti in 1998, American linguist Charles Walton in 1993 and two Spanish Catholic nuns in 1993.

Asked if the rebels approved of his being a negotiator, Azzarouq said: ''They agreed (to see me). That means they will agree.''

Other members of the negotiating team are Dr. Parouk Hussin, foreign affairs committee chair of the Moro National Liberation Front and ARMM Interior Secretary Jamasali Abdurahman.

Ibrahim's representatives were sent earlier yesterday to lay the groundwork for the meeting.

''We have received a message from the Abu Sayyaf today to meet with them today. They are ready to meet with us,'' said Ibrahim, after his emissaries returned earlier yesterday.

He was supposed to have left on Tuesday to meet the rebels but the visit was put off amid reports that the gunmen had slipped through a military cordon with all 21 hostages.

Ibrahim, a respected Islamic scholar, was handpicked by the government to replace former rebel leader Nur Misuari as the chief negotiator due to his close links with the Abu Sayyaf. He is a childhood friend of the chief of the kidnappers, Galib Andang alias Commander Robot.

For his part, Misuari traveled here yesterday from Zamboanga to consult with his envoys to the rebels.

Four Abu Sayyaf leaders sent a letter to Mr. Estrada on Saturday rejecting Misuari as negotiator, and demanding talks with the ambassadors from the hostages' countries, Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, and representatives of the United Nations, Libya and other Islamic nations.

Yesterday morning, government soldiers in Sulu were ordered to stay put as the new negotiating team made contact with the kidnappers.

Aventajado said the stay order was issued to ensure the safety of the hostages.

He yesterday morning admitted that if it were true that the kidnappers and hostages had slipped through a tight military cordon around Talipao, the negotiators' ''job has been made more difficult.''

Hours later, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes, confirmed that the hostage-takers had ''pierced through'' a former MNLF camp in Talipao on their way to Patikul town.

In a news conference at Camp Aguinaldo, Reyes said the military was investigating reports that MNLF integrees had helped the Abu Sayyaf rebels escape.

Reyes said he could ''not discount the possibility'' that some former MNLF fighters continue to have ''liaisons'' with the rebels.

He said government forces were ''in the process of'' establishing a new cordon around Patikul.

Reyes also said they were ''under strict instructions not to conduct any operations that will endanger the lives of hostages.''

The crisis over the 21 Jolo hostages has become increasingly internationalized as video footage taken at the rebels' camp has been broadcast around the world, showing them to be terrified, exhausted and ill.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said in Hamburg Tuesday that he was awaiting the imminent release of Wallert, but a German foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday that the situation of the hostages ''remains unclear.''

''In the event of a release of hostages, which is unconfirmed, immediate measures to be taken have been agreed with the Philippine authorities,'' the German ministry spokesman added.