Two blasts have rocked the Philippine capital minutes before the president lifted a state of emergency that has been in place for a week. 

Officials said there were two blasts near the offices of an elite police team in Manila on Friday, but the cause was not known.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the explosions in the Ortigas district, an upmarket shopping and eating area in northwestern Manila.

The blasts came minutes before Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the president, issued a statement calling off a state of emergency imposed last Friday after the discovery of a coup plot.

"At this moment, I am calling off the state of emergency," Arroyo said in a nationally televised address.

Arroyo's security chiefs said on Thursday the threat of a coup attempt by leftist opponents and renegade soldiers had receded. 

Security levels lowered

The blasts spooked investors, sending Manila's main stock market index down 0.23%. The peso weakened to 51.26 per dollar from an earlier high of 51.13.

Television reported one explosion near the Metrowalk shopping area and the other in a vacant lot used as a carpark that separates the police office and the shopping area.

Maximum security levels in the capital were lowered on Thursday after officials said the threat of a possible coup from leftist opponents and rebel soldiers had receded.

Arroyo, who survived an impeachment attempt last year over allegations of vote-rigging and graft, invoked the emergency to confront what she said was a conspiracy of opposition foes, communist groups and "military adventurists" to oust her.

PHOTO CAPTION

Philippine National Police bomb squad members inspect the site of an explosion in front of a Police detachment at suburban Mandaluyong east of Manila Friday Mar.3, 2006. (AP)