Washington – The United States is carefully watching President Abdurrahman Wahid's battle against impeachment in "troubled" Indonesia, Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.

He also told a Senate committee that the US had cautioned Jakarta against infringing on human rights when its security forces tackled separatism.

"It is a very troubled nation. We're waiting to see what happens in the capital and the leadership of the country," he told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations.

"We're following the situation closely ... We will be encouraging them to use democratic processes to figure out where they want to go in the future with respect to their leadership. We recognise the importance of that very, very large country and the important role especially that it plays in the region.

"We have cautioned the government that in their effort to keep the country together and not let it fly apart into its many potential constituent parts they have to be very sensitive to how they use their military force." He added that Jakarta must "make sure that whatever has to be done to retain the cohesiveness of the country is done in a way that does not violate human rights and is not repressive or an abuse of force".