Jakarta – Indonesia's vice president, a leading Muslim politician, urged the United States not to make Muslims a scapegoat for last week's terror attacks, which he said could help atone for Washington's past sins.

"Hopefully, the tragedy can cleanse the sins by the US," the Kompas newspaper on Sunday quoted Vice President Hamzah Haz as saying. "Therefore, there should not be any revenge against the Islamic community or Islamic countries," said Haz, the head of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party.

But Haz also condemned the attacks and expressed Jakarta's sympathy for the victims. "We are concerned by, regret and condemn the terrorism against the United States. But we are asking the US not to make Islam a scapegoat," Haz said.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslin country and the fourth most populous. About 90 percent of its 210 million people follow Islam. President Megawati Sukarnoputri, due to visit the United States this week, has offered Indonesia's help for Washington's war against international terrorism.

Haz said Jakarta appreciated President George W. Bush's decision not to cancel his invitation to Megawati despite the attacks, adding it was a sign the Bush administration harboured no ill will specifically against Islamic nations. Haz's United Development Party (PPP) is the largest Islamic party in Indonesia's parliament and its governing coalition.

Indonesian authorities and people have overwhelmingly expressed sympathy for the United States and outrage over the death and devastation. Although about half a dozen people held an anti-US protest outside the heavily-guarded embassy on Thursday, they were vastly outnumbered by the scores of flowers and wreaths laid along the security fence behind policemen carrying automatic weapons.

However, some commentators, including one former defence minister and one adviser to former President B.J. Habibie, have urged Washington not to over-react over the attacks, prompting an angry public response from US ambassador Robert Gelbard.

Indonesia is battling an Islamic insurgency in Aceh, a province on Sumatra, and recently agreed with Malaysia that their security agencies should cooperate closely to counter Muslim extremist groups in the region.