Jakarta – A planned meeting of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party in East Java was cancelled after supporters of another party trashed the venue and ambushed the participants as they made their way there, a report said Saturday.

The Golkar meeting between party cadres and supporters was scheduled to be held at the Wasesa sports stadium in Purbalingga, East Java, on Friday and was to be attended by Golkar chairman and state secretary Akbar Tanjung.

But the Kompas daily said hundreds of people, most wearing symbols of the Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDI-Struggle) of leading opposition figure Megawati Sukarnoputri, attacked Tanjung's convoy as it travelled to the stadium.

The vehicles were pelted with stones and a pick-up truck carrying party security was overturned and torched by the mob, the daily said. Tanjung's car and several others had their windows smashed in the attack.

Mobs also stormed the stadium, wrecking a podium and tents erected there, and forced Golkar supporters trapped in the building to take off their party T-shirts, the daily said.

"I regret and I am concerned by the incident. Golkar will send a protest letter to the Electoral Committee and the Electoral Supervisory Board," Tanjung was quoted by Kompas as saying after he was safely taken to the local Golkar branch office.

An executive of the PDI-Struggle chapter in Purbalingga, Sukarjo, said the party did not need to apologize because it had not organised the incident, Kompas said.

Golkar and PDI are two of the top contenders in the June 7 general elections, the first since the fall in May 1998 of former president Suharto who is the main patron of Golkar. A total of 48 parties will take part in the polls.