Members of hard-line Muslim group Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday to protest last week's announcement by the US government designating the group as a terrorist organization.

"We from JAT wish to meet with the ambassador or a representative to hear a clarification of the US statement," spokesman Son Hadi said in Jakarta on Wednesday. Embassy officials refused the request to meet.

JAT was founded by convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir, whose 15-year prison sentence was reinstated by the Supreme Court on Monday after an earlier ruling had cut it to nine years.

A day after the US announcement, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said JAT could "carry on in Indonesia as long as it is not breaking the law."