Italian hostage in Philippines freed after 6 mths

(Adds more quotes, Muslim rebel leader's wives freed)

* Italian engineer abandoned by captors in dead of night

* Vagni weak, reunites with wife and daughter in Manila

* Media says release part of prisoner exchange, army denies

By Manny Mogato

MANILA, July 12 (Reuters) - An Italian Red Cross official held hostage by Muslim rebels for nearly six months in southern Philippines was freed on Sunday, saying the thought of seeing his family again kept him alive throughout his captivity.

Eugenio Vagni, 61, was abandoned by his captors at a remote village in Maimbung town on Jolo island early on Sunday and was fetched by soldiers and Nur-Ana Sahidulla, vice governor of Sulu province in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, the military said.

He was taken to an army base for a medical check up and later flown to an air base in the southern port city of Zamboanga, where colleagues from the Red Cross were waiting for him.

"The will is to see my family, to see my wife and my daughter," Vagni, near tears, told a local television network in an interview on board a plane that took him to Zamboanga.

"This gives you big strength because you know that your family is there waiting for you ... You adapt to the situation. You have no choice. And you survive everything.

"I only found some little paper, that to feel alive I was writing some thoughts to my wife," said Vagni, adding he had been threatened with beheading.

He said he had been fed dried fish and rice, and had lost lost 20 kilos (44 lbs) in weight.

Before he left Zamboanga for Manila, Vagni thanked those who prayed and worked for his release, saying: "I was thinking that it will never happen."

Wearing a dark shirt with a Philippine Marines logo and blue jogging pants, Vagni, visibly weak, smiled and waved to the cameras as he was reunited with his Thai wife and daughter at an air base in Manila.

Vagni said he was not aware that his co-worker, Swiss national Andreas Notter, had already been freed, adding the rebels separated them because he couldn't keep pace with his captors in the jungle due to a hernia.

Notter was released in April, several days after another Red Cross worker, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba, was set free by the rebels. The three were taken hostage on Jan. 15 after they inspected a sanitation project at a prison on Jolo.

PRISONER SWAP?

Officials said no ransom had been paid for Vagni. But local news websites said he was released after the military agreed to free two wives of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader, part of the group that held Vagni in the rugged interior of Jolo since January.

The women were arrested at a military checkpoint on Tuesday, the news reports said.

Sahidulla, who was active in negotiations for Vagni's release, said the women had been freed. She said she brought one of them to the rebel leader in the mountains on Saturday night.

"The wives played a big role in the release of Vagni," she told reporters, adding the second wife was sent home on Sunday. "They are innocent and are not facing any criminal charges."

But the military denied it had agreed to an exchange of prisoners, saying pressure exerted by security forces contributed to the release.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a statement the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf would continue.

Sahidulla told local ABS-CBN television that a small amount of money was given to Vagni's captors for his "accommodation". "There was a minimal charge ... about 50,000 pesos ($1,035)," Sahidulla said.

"They did not demand any ransom, but I gave them 50,000 pesos from my own pocket for their cigarettes," she added.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they were "very happy and relieved to hear" of Vagni's release.

In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Vagni had been released by his captors peacefully, adding there was no "violent action" that could have endangered the hostage's life. (Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi in Rome; Editing by Rosemarie Francisco and Jeremy Laurence)