Jakarta – A retired US general, who has been mediating between Jakarta and the rebels in Aceh, said on Thursday that the only way to achieve peace in the restive province was through talks.

Retired US General Anthony Zinni, who has served as Washington's special envoy to the Middle East, returned on Wednesday from a three-day fact finding mission in the province where a decades-long separatist conflict has claimed thousands of lives.

"I think all sides are convinced that the way to peace is through dialogue," Zinni told a news conference in Jakarta. "I'm convinced we have a momentum now and it'll be important for all sides to build that momentum into a peaceful resolution."

Zinni visited the province on the northern tip of Sumatra as part of an advisory role for the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HDC), which has brokered two years of largely unsuccessful peace talks.

His comments follow last week's stern message from staunchly nationalist President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who said that crippling the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was vital to ending the violence. They also come as the government weighs whether to take civil or military emergency measures.

A military emergency would place the army commander in Aceh in charge. A civil emergency is one step down, but still gives wide security powers to local authorities.

But Indonesia's chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Megawati and the government were still open for talks even though more drastic measures were being considered.

"President Megawati has decided that the dialogue has to be continued in the most effective manner ... So we're obliged, both the government of Indonesia and the HDC as the facilitator, to develop a more appropriate framework," Yudhoyono told reporters. During his trip, Zinni met with leaders of Indonesia's military and the GAM, who routinely blame one another for the almost daily violence.

Zinni said plans for peace talks were in the pipeline but did not elaborate and urged both sides not to become discouraged by any setbacks in the meantime.

"We're working now on setting up a date for the next session and we would like to do it relatively soon ... Obviously to continue the momentum," he said Acehnese have long complained of abuses by GAM but their strongest criticism has been directed at the behaviour of the security forces in the province of four million people.