(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br/> An Australian man being held hostage by a suspected Islamist militant group on a southern island in the Philippines has appeared in a video saying his captors were seeking $2 million in ransom.<br/> Warren Richard Rodwell, a retired Australian soldier, looked pale and drawn in the video sent to his wife and obtained by a correspondent of local broadcaster Net25, at times choking with emotion and stumbling over his words.<br/> Rodwell has been missing since he was taken at gunpoint from his house in Ipil town on the restive island of Mindanao on December 5.<br/> The Australian government, which has a longstanding policy of refusing to pay ransom demands for its citizens, has set up a taskforce to assist Philippine authorities.
