Jakarta – Indonesian judges suspected of graft will be transferred to remote provinces in a bid to overhaul the legal system after a series of dubious verdicts which have hit investor confidence, Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said.

But the relocation of judges would not include those in commercial courts where bankruptcy suits are heard and which have been recently tainted by allegations of graft.

A new bankruptcy law introduced in 1998 in a bid to end the deadlock between debtors and creditors over the country's US$65 billion private debt burden has been ineffective in practice seemingly as a result of several dubious court decisions.

But Mr Yusril, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, denied the allegations, saying that "a few rulings cannot represent the system as a whole".

The International Monetary Fund has told Indonesia it must clean up its courts and improve the implementation of its bankruptcy law and has also demanded the use of "ad hoc" judges.

When President Abdurrahman Wahid came to power eight months ago, he said fighting corruption was at the top of his agenda. But many analysts say Indonesia's judicial system has remained untouched by political reform and there have been a string of embarrassing court decisions since Mr Abdurrahman was elected.

Mr Yusril said the country faced a shortage of "capable and clean judges" and added the government planned to set up a special school for judges. "We will only recruit the best pupils as the judges ... In a way it's kind of ridiculous because in this country you still have to do further study to become a notary public but not a judge. Human resources are basically our biggest obstacle," he said.

The government has also set out a five-year plan to revamp the legal system, including a planned hike in the salary of judges to try to curb corruption.

As for sending judges to the provinces, he said the government was in the middle of the process of transferring most of Jakarta's judges to other main cities, a move affecting between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of those now serving in the capital. At least 30 judges in Jakarta have been listed for transfer. They will be replaced by judges from other parts of Indonesia. There has been no comment from the judges and an official at the Justice Ministry said it had not received any protests from them.