Jakarta – Some 30 Muslim students set fire to two US flags outside the US consulate in Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya Thursday during a protest against any plans to attack Afghanistan, police said.

About 50 riot police guarded the mission in the East Java city but a police spokesman said nobody from the group, which calls itself the Muslim Student Solidarity Forum, had been arrested. Students torched the flags after being barred from laying wreaths carrying protest messages at the consulate.

One of their leaders, Zainul Abidin, was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying protesters only wanted to express their views with the wreaths. These bore inscriptions reading "America, reflect on the Oklahoma tragedy" and "Rest in peace humanity, stop nuclear war." "Democracy does not work in the US because they [the US consulate] refuses to meet us when we just wanted to convey our aspiration that America should not easily make an accusation over the tragedy in New York and Washington," Abidin said.

The Oklahoma city bombing in 1995 was carried out by US terrorist Timothy McVeigh despite initial suspicions of a Middle Eastern connection. The US says Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden is its main suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks and has warned Afghanistan to hand him over.

In Jakarta, some 100 headscarved protesters from "The Muslim Women Sisterhood", held a brief peaceful rally outside the United Nations office. The group shouted "Peace is beautiful" and "Peace, yes, terrorism, no." "We are strongly against terrorism as a whole but if they are going to attack Afghanistan it will be a new form of terrorism because many innocent civilians will be victimized," said the group's spokeswoman, Zyrlifera Jamil.

Jamil said President Megawati Sukarnoputri – who held talks with US President George W. Bush on Wednesday – "must not betray the aspirations of [the] Muslim community" in Indonesia. On Wednesday radical Islamic groups in Indonesia threatened to raid US facilities and expel American citizens if Washington attacks Afghanistan. But Jamil said her group "will never support any raids by any Muslim groups" on US residents and facilities.

The protesters went on to a roundabout a few blocks away and distributed roses to onlookers before dispersing.

Later in the day some 50 protesters from the Indonesian Muslim Student Association rallied at the same roundabout and urged the US not to indiscriminately blame Afghanistan and Bin Laden. "America is so confused that they had to issue threats to Afghanistan without having any proof that Osama was actually behind the attacks," said association spokesman Yanuar Arif.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation.