A leading conflict prevention group on Thursday urged the Indonesian government and separatists in the resource-rich province of Papua to enter negotiations to settle their differences.

Poorly-armed guerrillas from the Free Papua Movement have waged a war of independence for four decades, often launching hit-and-run attacks against Indonesian troops with traditional bows and arrows and World War II-era rifles.

The International Crisis Group said escalating violence in the restive eastern province in the past eight months made talks increasingly pressing.

"A dialogue, if carefully prepared, offers the possibility of addressing longstanding grievances, without calling Indonesian sovereignty into question," said Sidney Jones, the senior advisor to the group's Asia programme.

Indonesia took over Papua, a former Dutch colony on the western half of New Guinea island, in 1969 after a vote among a select group of Papuans widely seen as a sham.

Violence in the past year has focused on a huge gold and copper mine operated by US miner Freeport McMoRan, which has long been at the centre of allegations of rights abuses against ordinary Papuans. Three people, including one Australian mine technician, have been killed in separate incidents since July.

The ICG said talks would need the support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and faced obstacles including a lack of trust.

"It will only succeed if all issues, political and historical, not just economic, are on the table, and President Yudhoyono gives it visible, public backing," Jones said in a statement.

The group called on Indonesia to lift a ban on reporters and non-governmental organisations in Papua. "The Indonesian government repeatedly shoots itself in the foot by restricting access and preventing a full picture of Papua from emerging," the ICG said in its statement.

Papuans, who are ethnically Melanesians, have accused Indonesia's military of violating human rights in the province and complained that hefty earnings from its resources end up in Jakarta.