MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government  on Tuesday urged the media to show more restraint in covering crisis situations amid concerns live broadcasts fuelled tensions in a hijack standoff that left 8 Hong Kong tourists dead.

Last week's carnage saw police storm the bus 10 hours into the ordeal after the hijacker, enraged by watching on television his brother being arrested just outside the vehicle, started firing his weapons.

Ricky Carandang, a spokesman for President Benigno Aquino, said he would hold talks this week with executives of Manila television and radio networks about their coverage of the siege.

"We're not trying to impose restrictions on them. We want to try to reach a common ground, how we're all going to behave if this thing happens again," said Carandang, head of Aquino's Communications Operations Office.

"We've called a number of broadcast stations because they were the most active in real time during the hostage crisis," he told a news conference.

The ordeal on August 23 began when sacked policeman Rolando Mendoza hijacked a busload of Hong Kong tourists in Manila in a bid to clear himself of extortion charges and get his job back.

The government has admitted to making many errors in handling the crisis, which chilled diplomatic ties with Hong Kong and damaged the Philippines' tourism industry.

Security experts roundly criticized the live broadcasts that had allowed Mendoza to monitor movements of the police around him by watching a television monitor inside.

One radio network also broadcast a lengthy live interview with Mendoza shortly before the assault, which critics said meant police negotiators could not talk to him before he decided to kill his hostages.

Carandang said Aquino did not support a proposed law that would bar the media from making live broadcasts of hostage-taking situations in the future.

"At this time the idea of (imposing) news blackouts is not something we are contemplating," he said.

"I'm hoping that we can come to an agreement with media outfits on when news blackouts are necessary."