The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has denied a report that claims it was in cahoots with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

A spokesman for GAM's exiled leaders in Sweden, Zaini Abdullah, on Wednesday told Japan's Kyodo News the source of the report presumably came from the Indonesian government, which wants to discredit the separatist group.

"We know nothing about Al-Qaeda and we have never had any contact with Al-Qaeda because GAM is not fighting for an Islamic state but for independence," he said.

He was referring to a CNN news item that cited an intelligence report revealing that bin Laden wanted to relocate Al-Qaeda's main base from Afghanistan to Aceh in 2000.

"That was a fake report made by the Indonesian government as a [form of] propaganda to label us as a terrorist group," said Abdullah.

The CNN report said an Indonesian man, Agus Dwikarna, had guided Al-Qaeda members during a visit to Aceh in 2000. Dwikarna, who was arrested with two other Indonesians in the Philippines in March for alleged possession of explosives, has claimed intelligence agents in Jakarta framed him.

The CNN report cited an Indonesian police document stating that Dwikarna had been plotting with militants to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri but later dropped the plan.

There have never been any top-level political assassinations in Indonesia, not counting leaders of rebel groups, murders of generals and state-sponsored executions.