Jakarta – Some 2,000 Indonesian Moslems held a mass prayer here Sunday calling for an end to mounting violence in two of the country's major trouble spots – Ambon and the western province of Aceh.

Separately, thousands more Moslem youths from the Front for the Defence of Islam roared through the city's main thoroughfares on motorcycles, calling for unity among the country's Moslem majority, witnesses said.

Another group of motorcyclists, the Ka'aba Youth, also took to the streets of the capital in support of President B.J. Habibie.

The crowd at the Jakarta Al-Azhar Mosque chanted "God is Great" and waved placards reading "Stop the Violence" and "Beware of Foreign Interference in Aceh."

The Indonesian Association of Islamic Boarding Schools (BKSPP), the organizer of the mosque rally, demanded that security forces protect Moslems in Ambon, the scene of months of Moslem-Christian violence.

"Violence against Moslems in Ambon is motivated by the spirit of the Crusade and is a result of a conspiracy," the group said in the statement. It said fighting against "evil conspiracies" constituted a holy war or "jihad." The group also attributed the continuing violence in Ambon and Aceh to the government's inability to protect the people.

BKSPP also urged the military and separatist rebels who have been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Aceh since the 1970's to stop the violence and hold a dialogue.