Jerry Norton, Jakarta – US criticism of Indonesian prosecutors over verdicts in East Timor human rights cases was out of line and would be better directed at judges in the case, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday.

Last week, in a process Washington has linked to the resumption of normal military ties, an Indonesian court found a former East Timor police chief and five security officers not guilty of crimes linked to the violence surrounding the 1999 referendum on East Timor's independence from Indonesia.

And a former governor of what is now an independent country was sentenced to three years' jail for crimes against humanity despite prosecution demands for 10-and-a-half years.

A US State Department statement on Monday said Washington was "disappointed that prosecutors in these cases did not fully use the resources and evidence available to them from the United Nations and elsewhere."

"Which evidence?" Indonesian Attorney General spokesman Barman Zahir said. "If they want to criticise be specific. We have used all the evidence and resources for the Timor cases. The United Nations did not fully help in terms of presenting witnesses from East Timor.

"Why do they always blame the prosecutors?" he told Reuters. "Judges are not gods ... they too make mistakes. I think the judges are not critical enough in making the decision."

The United Nations estimates that violence by pro-Jakarta militias backed by elements of the armed forces killed more than 1,000 Timorese in 1999. The United States responded by cutting military ties with Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation.

But on a visit to Indonesia earlier this month US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced a $50 million package for Indonesia, most of it for the police but also for military training in counter-terrorism and military-civilian relations.

However, he and other US officials have said normalisation of ties requires Indonesia's military to respect civilian authority and human rights and accountability for past actions.

The State Department statement said establishment of the tribunal judging the East Timor incidents "represented a bold step towards punishing the perpetrators of past atrocities ... We strongly encourage the Indonesian government to build on that positive step by mounting effective and credible prosecutions of the remaining cases."

Some human rights groups have dismissed the trials as a farce because Indonesia's military leaders at the time of the Timor violence were not brought to book.