Jakarta – Australian flags were burned Monday in at least two Indonesian cities, while anti-Australian rallies took place in two other cities amid whipped-up resentment against Canberra's role in East Timor, witnesses and reports said.

A group of protestors returned to the Australian embassy here after a lull of two days and burned an Australian flag, shouting angry slogans against their southeastern neighbour.

In the West Java province town of Cirebon, student protestors forced the local mayor and house speaker to burn Australian flags, the online service of the Kompas daily said.

"Scorched earth Australia" and "Do not stain our country," read two of the banners held aloft by the some 50 demonstrators in Jakarta, who described themselves as "the Red and White Front," and waved small red and white national flags.

The group claimed to be East Timorese, although an AFP reporter saw only two Timorese faces among them. Some of the crowd said they had been paid.

The group sang the Indonesian national anthem, as a cordon of some 100 police and police auxiliaries stood by.

High-school students also rallied at the governor's office in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya to condemn Australia's "arrogance and nosy attitude."

Australian embassy sources told AFP the country's consulate in the North Sumatra province capital of Medan was also besieged by protestors Monday, and that it had closed for the day.

The protestors had set up a tent outside the premises, indicating they planned to picket it round the clock, instead of just during the day as they had since late last week, the sources said.

Among the posters carried by the protesters in Jakarta was one reading "Wipe out Australia," and another proclaiming: "One year of Habibie's presidency, one island sold. How many more do you want to sell?"

The "Red and White Front" has never been heard of previously here. One of the protestors admitted they had been picked up at a small mosque by a man who promised them lunch and 20,000 rupiah (2.4 dollars) in cash.

Eddy Gerzon, who was wearing the black T-shirt of the feared Mahidi militia of which he claimed he had once belonged to, shouted: "Burn the embassy."

Another protestor, Batista Sufa Kefi, who identified himself as a student, said no one had invited Australian soldiers to East Timor.

"Who invited them? I never invited them ... East Timorese were never involved in the May 5 agreement and Habibie had never even lifted a weapon for this country. He is just a transitional president any way," Kefi said, referring to the May 5 deal for an independence ballot in East Timor.

After five of the representatives met an embassy political officer, the demonstrators left to head for the UN office here.

In Cirebon, some 500 students from three local universities marched to the district parliament where they forced House Speaker Suryana to set an Australian flag alight.

The protesters then went to the city's mayoralty across the street and forced Mayor Lasmana Suriatmaja to do the same, but only after the flag had been used to mop the floor there.

In Surabaya, some 25 high-school students staged a brief rally, displaying banners, and singing the national anthem, the Antara news agency reported. "This is one of the many forms to demonstrate our nationalistic feeling, so it's okay to skip class for a while," said Andi, one of the students.

Many Indonesians blame President B.J. Habibie for allowing the UN vote in East Timor on August 30 in which an overwhelming majority voted for independence from Indonesia, which invaded the territory in 1975.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta has seen demonstrations almost daily since the results of the vote were announced on September 4. Unidentified gunmen have twice fired at the mission, most recently on Friday night. No casualties or significant damage were reported in either incident.

The protests have forced Canberra to temporarily close its consulates in the West Timorese city of Kupang and in the city of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Trade has been affected, with wheat importers announcing they will seek other sources of supply.