Jakarta – Pressure on Indonesia from the United States and Southeast Asia to crack down on Islamic militants could backfire and turn them into heroes, according to a report by Brussels-based think tank.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) report also says the world's most populous Muslim nation is not a terrorist hotbed.

"Many Indonesians have expressed concern that pressure from the US and Southeast Asian governments on Indonesian authorities to carry out preventive arrests of suspects without hard evidence could be seriously counterproductive," read the report, released this week from the ICG's Jakarta office.

"It could easily turn the targets of that pressure into heroes within the Muslim community." The report follows a visit to Jakarta last week by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who promised Indonesia $50 million to help its security forces fight terrorism.

Indonesia is regarded as the region's weakest link in the US-led war on terror and has come under fire from some officials in other countries for not doing enough to rein in Muslim hardliners in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

The report downplays suggestions of widespread links between Islamic militants operating in Indonesia and the al Qaeda network blamed for the attacks that killed 3,000 people in the United States.

It says only one network of militant Muslims – which Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir helped found – produced all the Indonesian nationals so far suspected of links to al Qaeda. Singapore and Malaysia have accused Bashir of terrorism links. He has denied the allegations.

ICG is a private, multinational organisation funded mainly from the West and dedicated to conflict prevention and resolution.