Jakarta – More than 2,000 troops have been deployed to the troubled Aceh province amid rising violence and assassination threats against President Abdurrahman Wahid, who is to visit there next week.

The soldiers will be on standby with police to maintain security during next Tuesday's visit, "in light of worsening security conditions and the threats made to assasinate the President", said military spokesman Air Vice-Marshall Graito Usodo.

But, he said, the soldiers' primary mission was not security but to help the Aceh provincial government re-build homes, places of worship and infrastructure destroyed by floods and landslides in recent weeks.

During the visit Mr Abdurrahman is scheduled to declare a form of Islamic or Sharia law and to hand over US$10.5 million in aid in bid to defuse demands by rebels wanting to break free of Indonesian rule.

Faced with the big security effort, separatist groups yesterday downplayed the potential for trouble during the president's one-day visit to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. "He can come here. Death threats against the President did not come from us," said Cut Nur Asikin, a spokesman for Free Aceh Movement, whose guerrillas have been fighting for independence for the gas-and oil-rich province since 1975.

"Wahid's visit to declare Sharia law and give aid is a futile gesture," said Faisal Ridha, a spokesman for SIRA, a student group that wants a referendum on Aceh's political future. "His trip is not in the best interests of the Acehnese, but will be made for his and the Jakarta elite's political benefit."