Banda Aceh – Armed men on Saturday attacked army troops securing the capital of Indonesia's troubled Aceh province ahead of next week's presidential visit, police said. A skirmish broke out between a team of military and police and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

It occurred just minutes from the city's airport, where President Abdurrahman Wahid is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, police operations spokesman Superintendent Yatim Suyatmo told AFP. Suyatmo said there were no casualties in the incident, at around 9am near Sultan Iskandar Muda airport, although one incoming domestic flight had to be delayed.

However he denied any of the troops involved were members of the Jakarta-based elite presidential guard, who had arrived in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, on Friday, to prepare for Wahid's visit. "The actual presidential guard arrived here on Friday. The shoot-out did not involve the them," Suyatmo said.

Independent sources here said the attack tool place as the troops were on their way to pick up members of the presidential guard. Greater Aceh GAM spokesman, Ayah Muni told AFP he had not heard of the incident and denied his organisation was involved.

Suyatmo said the troops had been conducting a search of the area following an incident on Friday in which alleged rebels confiscated scores of weapons from the district military headquarters. "They [GAM] had stolen our weapons and that's why we launched the search operation, and when we passed through the area we were ambushed," he said.

GAM sent a letter last week warning of intelligence reports that "hard-line Indonesian military elements" could be plotting to assassinate Wahid during the visit. The rebels group, which has been fighting since the mid-1970s for an independent state, said in the letter that they had no quarrel with Wahid.