Lhokseumawe – Several thousand people in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh on Saturday staged a protest demanding President Abdurrahman Wahid allow a referendum on its future status, police said.

The protest took place in East Aceh district, one of the areas where support for the separatist Free Aceh rebels is strongest. Police said the protest was generally peaceful.

Prior to his election Wahid visited Aceh and appeared with another top politician, Amien Rais, at a meeting in the provincial capital Banda Aceh at which calls for a referendum were made.

Both men have said a speedy resolution of the crisis in Aceh, the northern tip of Sumatra, should be a top government priority. Around 2,000 are estimated to have died in Aceh in a nine-year operation to crush the rebels.

Although that operation officially ended last year, clashes have continued, claiming well over 200 lives in the province this year.

East Timor's vote for independence on August 30 and impending UN-supervised independence have prompted increasing calls for a similar referendum in Aceh, one of Indonesia's most mineral-rich