Jakarta - Students and farmers staged street rallies in several Indonesian cities on Wednesday despite the massive presence of security forces, witnesses said.

Hundreds of security forces Wednesday prevented busloads of students from approaching the national parliament building to demand that prices be lowered and that President B.J. Habibie hand over power to a transitional body. At least 300 riot police, armed military police and soldiers formed a thick cordon inside and outside the entrance of the parliament complex here, while some 500 students crowding six buses were immobilized at a nearby tollway. They were later joined by other protestors swelling the ranks of demonstrators to around 1,000 by mid afternoon.

In Padang, the capital of the province of West Sumatra, two separate demonstrations took place peacefully as hundreds of policemen watched, a witness said. Some 200 members of the Farmers' Forum of West Sumatra for Land justice, protested at the land affairs' office demanding that the government quickly resolve disputes between farmers and private companies in the province. About 100 members of the Student Alliance for Reform also protested in Padang, to demand the resignation of mayor Zuiyen Rais over allegations of corruption, the witness added.

In the North Sumatran city of Medan, still recovering from a mass strike by thousands of public transport drivers and owners last week, thousands of farmers and students demonstrated at the governor's office, a resident said. The farmers demanded the return of land grabbed by private companies with the backing of the autorities in the past, the resident said. "The North Sumatra governor's office is still occupied by the protestors," a police officer at the city's station who identified himself only as Situmorang told AFP, adding more than 200 police were deployed there. In Jakarta, security authorities blocked the main avenue and a tollway in front of the parliament and prevented buses carrying the students from leaving the tollway to approach the main gate. The students, from the Forum Kota that gathers 39 universities in Jakarta and its surroundings, demonstrated on the tollway, waving the national flag and distributing leaflets with their demand: "Lower down prices and form the Indonesian People's Committee."

"Only with the committee or a form of presidium or a coalition government can the crisis of the transition period be overcome," the leaflets said. "Investigate thoroughly cases of abduction, shooting and rapes," one poster said Another read: "Habibie plus (military chief) Wiranto equals Suharto," and "Return ABRI (the armed forces)'s role as soldiers of the people."

Two truckloads disgorged some 100 marines to reinforce the guard in front of the parliament, witnesses said. General Wiranto threatened firm action against protests last week but the warning has been ignored, with students continuing their almost daily action, including in front of the parliament.

Earlier Wednesday, some 150 alumni of the state-owned University Indonesia gathered at their Central Jakarta campus, demanding the government rid itself immediately of corruption.

Sri Edi Swasono, an economist and former government official, said the direction of Indonesia's reform has become unclear since the fall of ex-president Suharto on May 21 amid mounting public pressure for him to step down. "Reform has become deformed," he said over the loudspeaker in the university courtyard. He said Habibie's cabinet had lost track and "are confused themselves."