Jakarta – Indonesian Military Chief General Wiranto on Saturday hinted for the first time that he is willing to negotiate with Aceh guerrillas to end the violence which has plagued the province for decades.

He said he was open to dialogue with any party to settle the violence, the first time a senior Indonesian official has raised the possibility of talks with the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) rebel movement.

But the military chief stressed that his troops, including a detachment of anti-riot specialists sent to Aceh amid escalating violence earlier this year, were not to blame for the bloodshed and would not be withdrawn.

"I will be willing to hold a dialogue with whichever side to find the best solution which will not disadvantage the people but will at the same time resolve the problem," Wiranto said, without elaborating.

"I think the problem does not lay [with the anti-riot troops]," he told a press conference here in response to mounting criticism of what is seen as the Indonesian military's heavy handedness.

A two-day general strike called by rights activists and students demanding the end of military violence in Aceh and the pullout of the anti-riot troops paralyzed most major towns in Aceh earlier this month.

The government has so far refused to countenance growing calls for dialogue with the leaders of the Aceh Merdeka, an armed movement which has been fighting for an Islamic state in Aceh since the mid 1970s.

On Saturday groups of rampaging men in North Aceh set a hotel and several vehicles ablaze, while on Friday armed men shot two policemen dead and injured four others at Makmur Lubu about halfway between Bireun and Lhokseumawe. "The reports that we have received is that some men put the Murni Hotel in Bireun to fire, as well as one bus and three trucks on the main highway between Makmur Lebu and Bireun this morning (Saturday)," said an activist by telephone from Lhokseumawe.

The activist, from the Birata non-governmental organisation active in monitoring violence in North Aceh, said no casualties were reported and the attackers remained unidentified.

Groups of men have also been discouraging people in Bireun, some 60 kilometres west of Lhokseumawe, from flying the Indonesian red-and-white flag as is customary ahead of independence day, which this year falls on Tuesday, he said.

The head of the Aceh trade and industry office in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, said that the recent attacks on traffic in North Aceh have halted supplies of fuels to North Aceh.

"Drivers of tanker trucks refuse to take the Bireun-Takengon highway because they are worried about security disturbance on that way," the official, Sa'adan said according to the Antara news agency. The district's stocks of gasoline, diesel oil and kerosene had now been depleted, Sa'adan said.

Antara also said attacks had disrupted supplies of essential goods to the Gayo plateau in neighbouring Central Aceh district.