Alue Gintong – A major military operation to crush a rebellion in Indonesia's Aceh province will be over within a year, President Megawati Sukarnoputri said Thursday, as the rebels vowed a fight to the death.

Megawati, who flew into resource-rich Aceh under heavy security Thursday pledged an end to the fighting at a ceremony where she addressed troops who have been battling since May 2003 after the collapse of a truce.

"God willing, by next year, these problems can be resolved, including social and economic problems, so that the civil emergency can be lifted," she said.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, has been under a restrictive state of "civil emergency" since martial law, imposed at the start of the military operation, was lifted in May this year.

Shortly before Megawati's comments to troops at Alue Gintong, a part of rural Aceh once a bastion of the rebel Free Aceh Movement or GAM, guerrilla leaders pledged to continue their struggle, which began in 1976.

"GAM won't be finished off because GAM is the people of Aceh," one of the movement's military commanders told AFP in Jakarta. "If there is still one Acehnese person in our land the struggle will continue." He was reacting to comments Wednesday by Indonesian armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto who in a briefing to troops on the eve of Megawati's visit urged them to "destroy" GAM.

The military on Wednesday claimed that at least 1,159 separatist rebels have been killed in the past 10 months of its anti-rebel campaign, showing there had been little let up in the operation despite official assurances of peace.

During her visit the president, wearing a Muslim headscarf in recognition of the region's conservative Islamic views, told soldiers they were "doing a noble task defending the country from a group of people who want to break away." "As a mother and president, I hope that all of you will take good care of your health and be very careful during combat.

Security was heavy for the trip, her second since the military operation began, with some 1,600 soldiers and police guarding the stretch of the highway from provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Previously known for her publicity-shy personality, Megawati is taking on an increasingly high profile ahead of September 20 presidential elections in which she will face her former security minister Susilio Bambang Yudhoyono.