A report that Muslim radicals are plotting to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri was an attempt to pressure Indonesia into cracking down on militants, analysts believe.

Time magazine, citing a regional intelligence report, said an alleged al-Qaeda senior operative, Omar al-Faruq, admitted he planned to kill Megawati in May 1999 when she was running for the presidency.

The report comes amid concern in Washington that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, may be home to sympathisers or members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Yet revelations of an attempt to kill Megawati have been greeted with scepticism in Indonesia, where many believe the United States has overstated the threat.

"I don't believe it. She was not a controversial figure," said Ahmad Syafi'ie Maarif, the head of the moderate Muhammadiyah Islamic organization which boasts some 30 million followers.

"I'm afraid it [the report] is an attempt to divide Indonesia," he told AFP, saying the United States is exaggerating its "war on terror" because it lacks self-confidence.

Time's report also said a second plot to kill Megawati was made in July last year. On that occasion the attempt failed when the bomb exploded prematurely at a Jakarta shopping mall.

In an interview published in the Koran Tempo daily Saturday, the man convicted for carrying the bomb in the mall denied he planned to kill Megawati. "How could I have a target as high as that?" Taufik bin Abdul Halim, a Malaysian, told the newspaper. "That's unimaginable."

Human rights lawyer Munir said: "I think it's rather odd that they wanted to kill Megawati. She was not in confrontation with Islamists." He said al-Faruq might have indeed made the confession but in that case his information was dubious.

He acknowledged that Muslim politicians opposed Megawati's presidential candidacy in 1999 but the opposition was merely "politicking" and not religiously-based. "I think the assassination thing is a way of pressuring Megawati to be more cooperative in the so-called war on terror," Munir said.

The Indonesian military warned that the information from al-Faruq could be an effort to discredit the world's largest Muslim nation.