Jakarta – Indonesian legislators asked President Abdurrahman Wahid formally yesterday to seek the withdrawal of the tough-talking US Ambassador to Jakarta, Mr Robert Gelbard, the official Antara news agency reported.

All members of parliaments' influential commission on foreign affairs signed a letter sent to Mr Abdurrahman, a move likely to deepen a rift between the two countries that is threatening to blow up into a full-scale row.

"We have sent a letter to the President today urging him to write a letter to the US government requesting the withdrawal of its ambassador from Indonesia," said Mr Yusril Ananta Baharuddin, head of parliament's foreign affairs commission.

"He has interfered in our internal affairs too many times," he said. MPs and senior government officials have repeatedly accused the American diplomat of meddling in domestic affairs, but this marks the first formal step to demand his recall.