Jakarta – Some 150 youths protested at the US consulate in the second city of Surabaya against Washington's criticism over the killings of UN aid workers in West Timor, news reports said Saturday. The protestors pulled down the consulate flag and burned it, and threw stones at the building during the Friday protest in the capital of East Java, the reports said.

The youths, from the so-called Youth Alliance for Democracy and Baladhika Karya youth groups, accuse the United States of "pressuring Indonesia" over last week's killings in West Timor.

On Wednesday, militiamen attacked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the border town of Atmabua and hacked to death three UNHCR workers, as Indonesian police allegedly stood by.

The Surabaya-based daily Jawa Pos said the protestors jumped over the consulate's steel gate and pulled down the flag before setting it on fire. A Surabaya police officer told AFP on Saturday "no damage was suffered by the US consulate."

The rally came two days prior to a two-day working visit here by US Defense Secretary William Cohen on Sunday. In Manila on Friday, Cohen said Indonesia must take strong action to restrain militias and make the military accountable.

Cohen said he would "remind the president [Wahid] and especially the military that they need to take strong action to curb the militias in West Timor, that the situation that has been unfolding in recent days and months is not acceptable."

A Surabaya-based journalist told AFP the Baladhika Karya was "known here to have strong ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI)." He said the group waved posters reading: "Don't blame TNI for Atambua" and "US and UN are responsible for Atambua case." Protestors from the same group held a similar rally outside UN headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Indonesia is under intense international pressure to disarm the militias following the murders of the UNHCR workers. In a resolution adopted last Friday, the UN Security Council condemned the killings as "outrageous and contemptible."

Indonesia has said a search for an overall solution to the problems at the border must involve the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, which is overseeing the territory's transition to full independence from Jakarta, and the pro-independence National Council for East Timorese Resistance.