Banda Aceh – Indonesia withdrew 1,600 troops from Aceh province as part of a pact aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the province devastated by last year's tsunami. The troops were among the last due to leave Aceh during the final phase of military withdrawals called for under an August peace pact signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki.

"This is proof of our commitment to the peace agreement," Aceh military chief Major General Supiadin Adi Saputra said as he oversaw the farewell ceremony at Krueng Geukeuh port in North Aceh.

The last of the reinforcements are scheduled to leave next Tuesday and Thursday, officials said.

Former GAM rebels on Monday surrendered their final batch of weapons to meet the total of 840 firearms required under the pact, seen as the best chance yet of ending three decades of bloodshed in Indonesia's westernmost province.

The peace agreement stipulates that by the end of the fourth phase, only 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police, all locally-recruited, will remain in Aceh.

The separatist conflict had claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, since GAM began its struggle for an independent state in 1976.

The accord saw GAM drop its demand for independence in exchange for a form of local government in Aceh, a province of more than four million people. The government agreed to grant former fighters amnesties and allow them to start a local political party.

Both sides were pushed to the negotiating table in the wake of last December's tsunami, which left some 168,000 Indonesians dead and missing, mostly in Aceh, and some 220,000 dead across the Indian Ocean region.