Jakarta – Indonesia's anti-terror laws are tough enough and the country does not need to adopt US and Australian legal tools in the war on terror because they could endanger human rights, the justice minister said on Monday.

Ministers of Asia Pacific nations meeting in Bali last week concluded that laws in the region needed to be tightened. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, only enacted its first laws directly addressing terrorism days after militants from a group linked to al Qaeda bombed bars on Bali in October 2002, killing 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

"I don't see that we have weak spots," Yusril Ihza Mahendra told reporters after a speech. "What we need to tweak are the articles that have the potential of violating human rights. What we're working out focuses on articles on intelligence powers."

The new set of laws has been key to the investigation and prosecution of the Bali bombers, three of them now on death row.

Indonesian and foreign security officials have advocated the strengthening of the anti-terror laws to enable the prevention of acts of terror while they are being planned.

Yusril, a potential presidential candidate who leads a Muslim-based party, said he envisaged anti-terror laws that did not violate human rights, and that US and Australian legal tools in the war on terror were poor models.

"We don't want to be dictated by others. If we follow the United States and Australia, that can create big problems on human rights," Mahendra said.

"I think the Patriot Act and several things in Australia have the potential of violating human rights so we don't need to emulate them." The US Patriot Act, enacted less than six weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks, lets authorities tap telephones, track Internet usage and mobile telephones, share intelligence and detain immigrants. Several raids after the Bali blast on Indonesian Muslims living in Australia were seen as heavy-handed by rights groups and legislators in Indonesia.