Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono does not have the authority to step into a protracted dispute between Christian worshippers and Muslim hard-liners over a church in Bogor, his spokesman said on Monday.

"Even though the President is the country's highest commander-in-chief, the existing law on regional autonomy says that the president cannot intervene in decisions made by regional leaders," Julian Aldrin Pasha said, citing the 2004 Regional Autonomy Law.

"It would be unconstitutional should the President directly intervene in the dispute. Please don't ask the President to commit an unlawful act," the presidential spokesperson said as quoted by tempo.co.

Julian said encouraging Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto to re-open the beleaguered church was the best thing that Yudhoyono could do.

He also said President Yudhoyono had shown sufficient concern by instructing Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto and Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi to seriously address the issue.

Julian added that the President could do nothing else, including punishing Diani for his refusal to heed the Supreme Court's ruling, which guaranteed the congregation's legal right to use their church.

Two weeks ago, the church's members staged a demonstration opposite the Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta, demanding Yudhoyono's intervention in the continued discrimination and intimidation toward the church's congregation, which began more than two years ago.