Jakarta – Rival Christian and Muslim factions from Indonesia's Maluku province agreed Tuesday to end their three-year war that has devastated the province and killed 10,000 people, a top Cabinet minister said.

The government is hoping the accord will emulate the success of a recent truce between Christians and Muslims from Sulawesi island that succeeded in ending a similar, though smaller, sectarian conflict.

"Both sides have agreed to end all conflicts and hostilities," said Welfare Minister Yusuf Kalla, who hosted the talks in the hill town of Malino in south Sulawesi, 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta. "There were no disagreements," he said. "They really want to end the war."

The agreement calls for the establishment of two commissions – for security and for social and economic affairs – to monitor the truce in the province known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule. It also provides for the disarming and banning of militias and establishment of joint security patrols, and calls for the return of refugees to their homes, the return of their property and the reconstruction of the province.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes in three years of combat in Maluku, located 1,600 miles northeast of Jakarta. The provincial capital, Ambon, was devastated by fighting and its two communities now are divided by a strip of no man's land.

Fighting escalated in mid-2000 when thousands of Muslims fighters belonging to the Laskar Jihad militia - or Holy War Troops – arrived from Java. The paramilitaries – who refused to attend the Malino talks – said in a statement that the Muslim delegates at the negotiations did not represent the people of the province.

Former President Abdurrahman Wahid claimed the conflict was sparked by hardline generals opposed to civilian rule after decades of dictatorship. The violence decreased sharply after mid-2001, when then-Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who enjoys the backing of the military, replaced Wahid.

Muslims account for about 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people, but Muslims and Christians are split almost evenly in the Malukus.

The US government has welcomed the peace process. "These talks are an important step in Indonesia's efforts to end violence, re-establish the rule of law and provide for reconstruction in the troubled province," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday.