Jakarta – The United States is offering support – including millions of dollars for police training and increased intelligence sharing – to help Indonesia crack down on potential terrorists within its borders.

"The offers are very wide-ranging. We are evaluating and proposing what we need and must recommend to join the international community in its efforts to overcome terrorism," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.

Washington had offered US$10 million to train Indonesian police to combat terrorism, he said. Other offers included an exchange of intelligence information, training courses for the banking sector, particularly in tracing the accounts of terrorist groups, and training courses for customs officers. Indonesian police officials said they would welcome such a gesture but had yet to be informed of it.

Washington is concerned that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network could already have established cells in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The US authorities are also said to be alarmed by Jakarta's lack of action in cracking down on terrorism.

In July, five suspected members of the Al-Qaeda network reportedly arrived in Indonesia from Yemen with a plan to blow up the US embassy in Jakarta, a high-ranking US official has revealed.

Washington sent a secret Delta Force team to Jakarta to beef up security but the Indonesian authorities baulked at taking action, allowing the men to slip out of the country, the official said. US diplomats surmised the authorities had intentionally scared the suspects away so as not to have to confront them.

The incident, which was not made public earlier, highlighted the ambivalent attitude of Indonesia's government and military towards foreign and domestic Islamic radicals who reportedly helped the Al-Qaeda team.

"Some Indonesian officials continue to waffle over the fact that Al-Qaeda ran a terrorist camp on the island of Sulawesi, despite testimony from alleged Al-Qaeda operatives arrested in Spain," Newsweek magazine reported. That cavalier attitude is also apparent in the glossing over of the questioning of Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has also been linked to the Al-Qaeda, Newsweek said. The Indonesian police force reportedly did not even ask Abu Bakar if he was linked to the terrorist network during interrogation.

But police spokesman Saleh Saaf said this was simply because they had not decided how to proceed with the investigation into Abu Bakar's alleged ties to Islamic militant groups.

US government officials have said the Bush administration wants to resume military assistance to Jakarta but was restricted by a congressional ban imposed after the Indonesian army devastated East Timor in 1999.

The Indonesian government says it is cracking down on suspected terrorists but admits it is constrained by domestic political concerns – it relies heavily on the political support of conservative Muslim parties in the national parliament.