Jakarta – The son-in-law of former Indonesian president Suharto was relieved of command of the prestige after he had resigned as head of state a day earlier.

An army spokesman said Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto had been replaced as head of the 17,000-man strategic command (Kostrad) and named commandant of the Staff and Command College in the West Java city of Bandung.

Prabowo, who is married to Suharto's second daughter Siti Hediati, was replaced by Major-General Johny Lumintang, assistant for operations to the armed forces head of general staff.

Military analysts said the move strengthened the hand of armed forces commander General Wiranto, who is believed to have played a key role in persuading Suharto to leave office in Thursday after 32 years in power.

Suharto, who quit under intense political pressure amid economic crisis, was replaced by his vice-president Jusuf Habibie.

Habibie reappointed Wiranto to the armed forces command and as concurrent defence minister on Friday morning, hours before Prabowo was abruptly relieved of command.

Suharto had named Wiranto, a former close aide regarded as a highly professional soldier, as head of the armed forces in a military shuffle in February when Prabowo was also given the Kostrad command.

Military analysts had seen the appointments as a move by Suharto to put into the top military posts men he regarded as loyalists in competition with each other.

Prabowo had previously commanded and expanded the elite special forces.

Kostrad commander is a three-star position and Lumintang, a 50- year-old infantryman who has spent much of his career in remote Irian Jaya, was expected to receive promotion to lieutenant-general.

A fast rising officer with overseas training, he was the youngest district military commander when appointed to command the forces in Indonesia's troubled East Timor territory in 1993.

He is also a Christian in the mainly-Moslem nation.