Jakarta – Hundreds of protestors Wednesday demonstrated at the Australian embassy here Wednesday, hurling abuse, tomatoes and stones at the premises over the perceived arrogance of Australian troops in East Timor.

The first protestors, around 100 men from North Jakarta, some wearing t-shirts of the Aitarak East Timorese militia, carried a huge Indonesian flag and hurled insults at the Australian government and military.

Some 100 policemen in riot gear and members of the police auxiliary force stood passively between the protestors and the embassy's fence.

The first group left only to be replaced by some 200 students from the private Jayabaya university who besides yelling anti-Australian slogans also pelted the embassy building with tomatoes and stones.

The police guard did not budge. The second batch only stayed briefly and gave way to a third group who arrived aboard several buses. The new arrivals, from the Borodubur private university in East Jakarta, burned an Australian flag in front of the embassy.

They carried two large banners. On read "The MPR has to react strongly" refering to the national assembly and the alleged incursion into Indonesian West Timor by Australian-led multinational troops from East Timor at the weekend during which Jakarta says one Indonesian policeman died. The other, in English said "Aussie, never disturb our sovereignty."

The protestors also carried posters labelling Australian Prime Minister John Howard a "coward" and demanding the withdrawal of Australian soldiers from the Internation Force for East Timor.

They were the latest anti-Australian demonstrations at the embassy which has seen almost daily protests including flag burnings in the past weeks.

The embassy was once pelted with fuel bombs while unidentified gunmen have shot three times at the mission in the past month. The Australian International School in Jakarta was attacked last week with fuel bombs hurled by unknown men.

Protests have also been held at Australian consulates in several other towns, forcing the closure of two of them, and on Tuesday mobs surrounded the consulate in Medan, North Sumatra.

Anti-Australian sentiment has been on the rise following Canberra's sharply critical stance on Indonesia's handling of the post-ballot violence in East Timor and its pressure to push for an international peacekeeping force there.