Indonesia has urged the global community to heighten vigilance to ensure rampant corruption does not swallow billions of dollars of tsunami aid as it promises a March deadline to begin large-scale reconstruction in ravaged Aceh province.

Senior Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who leads the government's disaster response team, said his country was gambling its reputation on the reconstruction of Aceh, which will put a pledged war on graft to the test.

Although the United Nations has said it wanted to take a more hands-off role in the effort to aid those affected by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, Shihab said Indonesia was not ready to go it alone.

He said it was vital that donor cash be channelled directly to rebuilding projects to avoid the country's notoriously suspect bureaucracy but where that was unavoidable, heavy scrutiny was needed.

Indonesia has forecast it would cost some four billion dollars over five years to rebuild Aceh.

US aid to Indonesia is also expected to increase, after President George W. Bush announced plans Wednesday to nearly triple aid to 950 million dollars largely for rebuilding infrastructure in tsunami-hit nations.

"I think the foreign donors will provide representatives so they will be part of the whole operation. Actually the government – if it can be done – the money will not be in their hands," Shihab said.

"Rest assured that the government is more concerned than the international community, because this is a test case for its integrity and reputation." Indonesia has been named by watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Its renown has led to a fall off in foreign investment, hampering recovery from last decade's regional financial crisis.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rode into office last October on pledges to root out the culture of kickbacks, bribery and collusion at the heart of the problem, but his administration has yet to deliver solid results.

Analysts have warned the huge sums of money pouring into the country in the wake of the tsunami, which killed an estimated quarter of a million Indonesians, will be too much of a temptation to graft-hungry officials.

Shihab has promised to install a series of checks and balances to keep tabs on the cash, recently launching a full investigation on an apparent 20,000 dollar discrepancy which he said was due to a typing error.

The need for close scrutiny has been heightened by a major shift in the aid process as work moves from emergency relief to the huge reconstruction projects involving graft-prone bidding for lucrative contracts.

Indonesian scholars and experts will meet February 11 to hammer out a blueprint for reconstruction, with major work to begin in the following weeks, Shihab said.

"I think the plan will be ready, we are concerned with having the plan as soon as possible because we don't want the donors to wait too long. By March, we will have it ready and start the work," he said.

The UN, which has warned that coming months will prove more of a challenge than the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, has said it wanted Indonesia to take the lead in the next stage.

"We need to agree to a common strategy that we're working on, but we need to put the local authorities and the Achenese in the driving seat," the UN's deputy coordinator in Aceh, Joel Boutroue, said earlier this week.

But Shihab said it was important for the UN to stay highly involved in the coordination process, although there was still a role for regional authorities.

"I think it is only normal that the UN will be part of the supervisory board. The UN will be part of the coordination of the NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and donors. The UN will contribute whatever resources they have to see the construction is carried out smoothly – but you can't ignore the local government."