The house of representatives has passed a resolution urging President Umaru Yar'Adua to extend the biggest military operation for years in the Niger Delta into neighbouring Rivers and Bayelsa States.
The Joint Military Task Force (JTF) launched a campaign a week ago to dislodge rebel fighters in Delta State, one of three main states in the oil-producing region, bombarding militant camps from the air and sea before sending in hundreds of ground troops.
The army says the offensive is targeting fighters loyal to Government Tompolo, leader of a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose "Camp 5" is seen as a focal point of criminal activity.
Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told diplomats at a briefing in the capital, Abuja on Friday that the offensive was aimed at rescuing missing soldiers from the delta's joint military taskforce (JTF) and recovering the bodies of the dead.
"The JTF operations are ... partly a reassurance to the troops and their families that members of the JTF are not mere sitting ducks for the militants and that the Nigerian state is safe for its citizens and foreigners alike," Mr. Maduekwe said.
He said militants had killed 33 soldiers since January 2008, while 38 were missing. They had also destroyed five military gunboats and seized three others along with 24 automatic weapons and 579 rounds of army ammunition.
Amnesty International has said it believes hundreds of people may have been killed and thousands displaced since the offensive in Delta State began a week ago.
Hostages to be released
After a heated 90-minute debate the House of Representatives passed a resolution late on Thursday urging Mr. Yar'Adua to extend the offensive and strike at militants in neighbouring states.
The commander of the Joint Military Taskforce (JTF) in the Niger Delta, Sarkin-Yaki Bello, has declined to comment on whether the campaign might be widened.
Security experts say such a move would be more likely to provoke retaliatory attacks on the oil industry than the campaign against Tompolo, who appears to have effectively been abandoned by militant factions in other parts of the delta.
Militants have taken more than 200 foreign hostages in the southern delta in recent years, most of them quickly released after payment of a ransom.
MEND said on Friday it would soon release three of the more than a dozen Filipinos seized last week during an attack on an oil vessel around the Chanomi Creek in Delta State.
The military last Friday freed nine other Filipinos and four Nigerians taken from the ship, while two Filipinos were believed to have been killed during the operation. Four Ukrainians seized in a separate incident were rescued on Sunday.
"The three surviving Filipino hostages will be released and abandoned within the next few days," the group said in an emailed statement to the media.