Jakarta – A top politician has urged US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to provide proof that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was present in Indonesia, reports said Wednesday.

"Paul Wolfowitz had better convey it directly to the Indonesian government and just show the evidence. Our country is clearly against terrorism," said national assembly soeaker Amien Rais, quoted by the Media Indonesia daily.

Rais was speaking after meeting with several visiting US congressmen and diplomats on Tuesday.

Osama bin Laden is accused by the US of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and New York's World Trade Center, which left more than 3,000 dead.

Parliament speaker Akbar Tanjung said al-Qaeda was alien to Indonesia. "We didn't know al-Qaeda until the 11 September event. In Indonesia there are two [largest] Islamic organizations – the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – and they're anti-terrorism," Tanjung said.

In an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday, Wolfowitz expressed concern about possible links between terrorists and Muslim militants in Indonesia.

"You see the potential for Muslim extremists and Muslim terrorists to link up with those Muslim groups in Indonesia and find a little corner for themselves in a country that's otherwise quite unfriendly to terrorism," he said.

"In the case of Sulawesi, the concern is there isn't enough military to protect the local population or to create the kinds of stable conditions that keep terrorism down," Wolfowitz said.

He was referring to the Poso region on Sulawesi island, where fighting between Muslims and Christians has left more than 1,000 dead over the past two years.

Wolfowitz said the United States was prepared to provide assistance to Indonesia and spoke in favor of reviewing certain restrictions about conducting joint exercises with the Indonesian military, which has been accused of human rights abuses. However, the deputy defense secretary said it was unlikely the United States would consider direct military action in Indonesia, "because it's such a big and disparate place," according to The Times interview.

National intelligence chief Abdullah Hendropriyono said last month that fighters linked to the al-Qaeda network, led by terror suspect Osama bin Laden, had trained near Poso some two years ago, but their camps had been long abandoned.