Jakarta – The Indonesian military, hit by rising losses in Aceh province, has dispatched a battalion of marines to reinforce units battling separatist rebels, the official Antara news agency said yesterday.

Quoting military sources, Antara said 600 marines arrived on Tuesday in Lhokseumawe, the capital of North Aceh, on board a navy ship. They were likely to be deployed in North Aceh, Pidie, and East Aceh, the three districts most affected by the violence of recent months.

The arrival of the reinforcements followed a vow on Monday by Lieutenant-General Sugiono, chief of the general staff, to take tough action against insurgents seeking to establish the region, 1,750 kilometres north-west of Jakarta, as an independent Islamic state.

General Sugiono had said that new troops would be needed to ensure security along Aceh's coastlines and crack down on smuggling.

On Tuesday, the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, denied an Indonesian newspaper report which accused Kuala Lumpur of backing the Free Aceh Movement.

Clashes between government troops and insurgents have risen sharply in recent weeks. At least eight soldiers have died so far this week, and 20 people were killed in a series of skirmishes last week. About 80,000 villagers have fled the fighting, human rights activists and medical workers say.

Meanwhile, the detained East Timor resistance leader Mr Xanana Gusmao says he fears the Indonesian Army will try to spread chaos and instability in East Timor if the bloodied territory chooses to break from Jakarta's rule.

Mr Gusmao promised to do his best to maintain stability and prevent revenge attacks against pro-Jakarta groups if East Timor opted for independence at the United Nations-supervised ballot scheduled for next month.

But the risk of post-ballot violence came not from independence supporters but from the Indonesian military, he said. "That is our fear. We are very, very afraid of the post-ballot time," Mr Gusmao said at the Jakarta bungalow where he is held under house arrest.