Jakarta – Indonesia has threatened to deport foreign nationals here to monitor the run-up to the country's June 7 elections if they do not have proper visas or are not registered with Jakarta's United Nations office, reports said Friday.

The Indonesian Observer quoted a senior foreign affairs ministry official as saying that "errant expatriates" were coming into the country posing as tourists "but actually giving lectures on election monitoring at univerity campuses and other places."

The official, the ministry's head of research and development Adian Silalahi, said discussions were underway with several embassies over the alleged visa violations.

Silalahi declined to say how many of the election observers were already here on tourist visas, but said they were guilty of "violation or misuse of their entry permits," the newspaper said.

The government, he said, recognized only those foreigners listed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as election observers.

Any others would be "dealt with sternly, expelled and sent back to their countries," he added.

The June 7 polls, the first since the fall of former president Suharto in May of last year, have been billed by Suharto's hand-picked successor, President B.J. Habibie, as the fairest the country will have seen in decades.

On Friday US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said after meeting with Habibie that she got the sense that the president was "obviously devoted to having this happen, a free and fair and open election."

Habibie had even inquired whether former US president Jimmy Carter, who has led election monitoring teams in several countries, might come to observe the June 7 polls, Albright said.

State Department Spokesman James Rubin said later that an invitation to Carter from Indonesian officials was "a real possibility."

Some 48 political parties, including one which was once banned, were Thursday said to be eligible to take part in the polls.