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The Australian and Canadian embassies in the Philippines capital Manila closed their doors Thursday after receiving "specific and credible threats" of attacks, officials said.

The European Union's representative office, in the same building as the Australian embassy, was also closed, a building administrator said, although the office itself did not give a reason for its closure.

Armed police and weapons experts secured the Australian embassy, which occupies the lower five floors of a 10-storey office tower in the financial district of Makati.

Police said they saw five foreign-looking men taking photographs and video footage of the embassy last Friday. Embassy officials were unavailable for comment.

Six uniformed Filipino police detailed at the embassy briefly detained an AFP photographer who was sent to take pictures of the Australian mission. He was later released without charges.

In Australia, the foreign ministry said the country had "received credible and specific information of a threat to the Australian embassy in Manila."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said later on television that the threat came from "Islamic extremists, fundamentalist people."

"I don't want to say too much about specifically who would mount the attack because that would get to the heart of the sort of intelligence that we have," he said.

"But, nevertheless, it is quite specific and they are Islamic fundamentalists, extremists of the kind we're used to."

He said his ministry also renewed a standing advisory for Australians to avoid non-essential travel anywhere in the Philippines.

Consular personnel would work from a Manila hotel during the embassy's indefinite closure, which comes as Australia is already under an extensive domestic terrorist alert.

Canadian embassy counsellor Heather Forton told AFP: "We have a specific and credible threat that has led us to decide to close the embassy temporarily."

The Canadian government website said in an advisory issued Wednesday that "Canadians should not travel to the Philippines until further notice.

"Threats against Canadians and Canadian interests in the Philippines have heightened and there has been an upsurge in bombings. The Canadian embassy in Manila is temporarily closed to the public, except for urgent consular assistance."

In Manila, foreign department spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said the foreign office was advised Wednesday that Canberra was shutting down its Manila mission.

"Whatever it was that caused them to make this decision, we have to address that," Lecaros told AFP.

He said he suspected that the threat could be an "offshoot" of the October 12 bombing of the Indonesian tourist resort of Bali that left at least 190 people dead, many of them Australians.

Lecaros said he was unaware when the Australian government planned to reopen the embassy. "I guess until they feel safe," he said.

Christine Directo, manager of the building that houses the Australian embassy and the EU office, told AFP that while she was unaware of any bomb threat, "we're doing our own searching and sanitizing of the building."

She said the EU office also notified its landlord that the office would be closed "until further notice."

She said the police guarding the building had orders to consider anyone taking photographs of the building as a "suspect right away".

Police officers at the building told AFP that they saw a group of six foreign-looking men, who they suspected to be Pakistanis, taking photographs and video footage of the building last Friday.

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