Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Habibie Government scrambled yesterday to set a timetable for political reforms, including new elections next year, as fresh student protests flared in the capital and provincial cities.

After a 90-minute meeting with President Habibie and members of his Cabinet, the Speaker of the Parliament, Mr Harmoko, announced an extraordinary session of the 1,000-member People's Consultative Assembly would be called at the end of this year, or early next year, to draft political laws ahead of fresh general elections.

An immediate extraordinary session is a key demand of students and reform groups who say Mr Habibie and many members of his Cabinet are linked to the former Soeharto regime and must be replaced as soon as possible.

About 400 students yesterday returned to the Parliament building, where protests by tens of thousands of students forced Mr Soeharto to resign the presidency last week.

Tanks and soldiers barred entry to the Parliament as student chanted: "Bring Habibie down right now."

At other campuses students hung banners saying: "Habibie is the protege of Soeharto, reform has not yet begun", and the prestigious University of Indonesia announced new protests today after a one-week lull.

In the key industrial centre of Surabaya about 3,000 students have been occupying the grounds of a government building for three days, calling for the extraordinary session of parliament to be convened immediately.

But Mr Harmoko said the session would not be called until late this year or early next year, and even then more preparation time would be needed for general elections.

Mr Harmoko said preparation for elections could be completed by next year, but pro-reform groups are suspicious of the Government's control over the political process and want an immediate session of the Parliament to replace Mr Habibie and many other Soeharto loyalists before redrafting the political laws.

The 500-member Parliament is part of the 1,000 member People's Consultative Assembly, which is dominated by appointees of Mr Soeharto, and remains the nation's highest decision-making body.

"Habibie was hand-picked by Soeharto and has no power-base of his own. This transfer of power will not bring about the necessary reforms demanded by the public," said Mr Jusuf Wanandi, an analyst with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

"Habibie is a controversial figure without experience as a political leader, he is opposed by many influential groups in Indonesia. Military leaders are not happy with his presidency, they accepted it only because it was Soeharto's wish."

Mr Wanandi said a parliamentary session should be called within a month to elect a new president and vice-president of a transitional government mandated to prepare new general elections and revive the economy.

The ruling Golkar party, Mr Soeharto's power-base, showed its first signs of unravelling with the announcement that one faction has broken away to form a separate party.

One of Golkar's founding factions, the MKGR, has split under the leadership of the former minister for women's affairs, Mien Sugandhi.

"We established the MKGR party to anticipate change brought by the reform campaign and the planned establishment of new laws on political parties."

Present laws limit political participation to three government-approved parties.