Jakarta – Indonesia will send 1,000 more troops to Ambon and neighbouring islands in Maluku province where more than 150 people have died in Moslem-Christian violence since mid-January, reports said Monday.

"They will reach here in a short time," Colonel Karel Ralahalu, chief of the Pattimura military command overseeing Ambon, was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

Ralahalu said armed forces commander General Wiranto had agreed to the new deployment. He said helicopters would be made available to ferry soldiers to outlying trouble spots in Maluku, of which Ambon is the capital.

Military sources said Wiranto was expected later Monday officially to anounce the reinforcements, who will support 1,000 police and 1,400 soldiers already in the area.

The violence in Ambon flared again last week, with troops shooting on sight to try to contain it. By last report on Sunday some 26 people had died during the latest troubles.

Contingents of the new troops would repair facilities damaged in the savage rioting, Ralahalu said. More than 300 have been injured and tens of thousands of panicky citizens have fled by ship for other provinces.

Reports Sunday said thousands of residents in three areas were without drinking water because of damage to a municipal water plant and an attack on a building housing employees of the state water company.

Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina was quoted by the Post as saying in Ambon that the city had arranged a joint Christian-Moslem coordination centre to try to end the violence.

He said he hoped the centre, aimed at eliminating suspicions between the disputing groups would be operational Tuesday.

On Sunday opposition politician Megawati Sukarnoputri offered to travel to Ambon to try to calm the situation.

"I am ready to cooperate with Pak Amien and Gus Dur if we are asked to bring peace there," she was quoted by newspapers as saying, refering to Moslem opposition leaders Amien Rais and Abdurrahman (Gus Dur) Wahid.

Megawati's Indonesian Democracy Party had traditionally embraced Christians.

[On March 1, Reuters reported that according to witnesses, police shot and killed nine people in Ambon when they fired without warning on Moslems leaving a mosque after early prayers. "Suddenly we were attacked by police, they were Christians", said a witness - James Balowski.]