Jakarta – The number of known hard drug addicts in Jakarta has soared by at least 400 percent in the past three years, and the real increase could be much larger, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Observer quoted Health Minister Achmad Suyudi as saying records of drugs patients treated at three state hospitals showed an increase from 1,779 in 1996 to 8,170 in 1999.

"The figure is small because those who are treated at private hospitals and rehabilitation centres here are not counted," Mr Achmad said. "Also, if drug addicts who remain at home without being detected are included, the figure could well be alarming."

The Observer quoted University of Indonesia psychiatrist Professor Dadang Hawari as saying that drug addicts in Jakarta could number "more than 200,000", many of them school-age children and university students.

Police say Indonesia has become a favourite transit point for foreign cartels shipping heroin and other drugs from Thailand and Pakistan to Canada and Europe.