Simon Mann, London – A British political consultant, hired to help lift the deteriorating public image of President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia, has quit after his methods came under scrutiny.

Mr Nigel Oakes, 38, was said to have left the country for Singapore and his media monitoring centre in Jakarta to have shut down. The centre, established under the guise of an independent monitoring agency, was quietly campaigning on behalf of Mr Wahid, who is said to have first met Mr Oakes in June. One report suggested members of Mr Wahid's family and inner circle of supporters had funded the campaign with up to $US2 million.

However, staff this week were reportedly seen carrying away televisions and computer screens, and newspaper had been plastered over the centre's windows. The closure followed a report in The Asian Wall Street Journal that questioned the centre's role.

According to the report, the agency monitored local and international media but also engineered a PR campaign in the name of the "Foundation of Independent Journalists" that included screening a series of television commercials stressing religious and ethnic harmony that gave implicit backing to the beleaguered President. The centre also held a seminar on journalistic ethics, but did not tell participants it was funded by the presidential palace.

Mr Oakes's Strategic Communications Laboratories has operated in Indonesia since the final days of the Soeharto regime. Asked by The Sunday Times why he had closed the centre, he replied: "You don't want a higher profile than your client."