Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, facing a tough re-election fight next month, has defended her record in an interview and denied she was capitalizing on her father's name.

"I have worked hard over the past three years. Can't they see any progress compared to when I was vice-president?" Megawati said in an interview with Kompas daily.

"It's funny that some people say reform has failed. We have achieved much together, one of the most fundamental being the constitutional amendments," she said.

Megawati took over from Abdurrahman Wahid after he was sacked by the national assembly in July 2001 for alleged corruption and incompetence.

Her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle finished only second after the Golkar party in an April 5 parliamentary poll as voters punished her for lacklustre growth, rising prices, high unemployment and continuing widespread corruption.

She faces an uphill fight against two ex-generals – former military chief Wiranto and ex-security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – in the country's first direct presidential election on July 5.

An opinion poll released Tuesday shows Yudhoyono with 41 percent compared to 11.2 percent for Megawati and 10 percent for Wiranto, the Golkar candidate.

Megawati dismissed suggestions that her popularity was merely due to the fact that she was a daughter of charismatic founding president and independence hero Sukarno.

"Sometimes I wonder if someone who says that did some thinking first. My father had eight children. If simply capitalizing on father's name, the other seven should have been successful too," she said.

"The truth is, no. I'm one of Sukarno's daughters. What's wrong with that? Am I not allowed to be? So what? Do I have to say that I'm someone else's daughter?" she said.

Megawati's status as Sukarno's daughter is seen as one of her electoral assets.