Jakarta – The streets of Indonesia's capital were quiet on Saturday after days of bloody anti-military riots in which at least six people were reported to have been killed, but security forces were wary of more unrest.

Two people died late on Friday night just as the riots were petering out, after the government bowed to the protesters and announced it had suspended a new security law that had sparked the trouble, local newspapers said.

The latest deaths would bring to at least six the number of people killed in the riots, which erupted on Thursday. One of the dead was a policeman, run down by a car, apparently on purpose. At least 100 people were injured in the violence.

Thousands of students took to the streets when the outgoing parliament passed a new security law that the students said would give the military even more power to crush dissent.

The parliament, dominated by the ruling Golkar party, is accused by the law's opponents of bending to the military's will. They say the generals want to bolster their powers.

The government, in a rare capitulation, on Friday said it would suspend implementation of the law after it became clear that local residents had joined the students in their protests.

Riot police on Saturday patrolled central Jakarta where the streets were littered with the debris of tear gas canisters, plastic bullets, petrol bombs, burnt-out cars and rocks.

The two days of rioting were the worst since last November when more than a dozen students were killed when security forces broke up mass anti-government protests near parliament house.

With dozens of casualties on both sides, and several fatalities, tensions remained high, and security forces remained in position in key locations around the city. Three protesters had been shot dead, apparently by live sniper fire, by the time the government backed down. Later, two others were killed, the Kompas daily reported on Saturday.

The newspaper quoted witnesses as saying a convoy of 10 troop carriers, escorted by motorcycles, had suddenly approached the gate of a hospital late on Friday night, and fired shots randomly, killing the two and wounding dozens.

One of the dead included a University of Indonesia student, the newspaper said. The other had not been identified, it added.

A crowd of students and residents were sitting at the time outside the hospital, where many injured were being treated. The hospital is near Atma Jaya University, the epicentre of the riots in Jakarta's central business district.

The Jakarta Post said in an editorial on Saturday that President B.J. Habibie should leave the fate of the new security law to the new president, to be elected by the top legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, in November.

"Now is the time for the president to show his wisdom and save his people, and himself," the newspaper said.