Jakarta – As war drums beat louder in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, momentum is building at the other end of the giant archipelago for tougher action against separatists in Papua.

Unlike Aceh, the guerilla movement in resource-rich Papua is low key and the rebels are poorly armed. What frightens the government, diplomats say, is a political movement of influential Papuan leaders who seek independence peacefully through an entity called the Papuan Presidium Council.

Analysts say nationalist President Megawati Sukarnoputri would not rule out the same hardline approach for predominantly Christian Papua if it meant holding together the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"Of course, the issues of Papua and Aceh are different but the mood of the government and the mood of the country at the moment is much less tolerant toward separatist movements," said Mr Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and an adviser to former president B.J. Habibie. "And the general world climate at the moment seems to give more leeway to a military solution."

Indonesia is expected to launch a major military offensive in Aceh within days, one of its biggest operations in decades. The International Crisis Group think-tank said efforts were already afoot to weaken Papua's independence movement – although not yet through overt military means.