Jakarta – Nearly 39,000 weapons have been surrendered following a peace agreement in December between warring Christian and Muslim residents in Indonesia's region of Poso, a police spokesman said Monday.

The situation in Poso has greatly improved since Muslim and Christian leaders signed the peace pact on December 20, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Agus Sugianto said.

Muslims and Christians in Poso, a district in Central Sulawesi province, had clashed intermittently for more than two years, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and tens of thousands of refugees.

Sugianto said most of the weapons surrendered, including home-made guns, have been destroyed and police and troops have continued raids to search for more weapons.

More than 3,000 police and soldiers have been stationed in Poso. "The situation is already conducive. There has been increasing social and economic interaction between the conflicting groups," Sugianto told AFP.

He said public buses linking three provinces on Sulawesi island via Poso have begun plying their business.

The police spokesman said last week police found 22 rounds of ammunition for an M-16 rifle inside a tree trunk.

The central government has also brokered a deal to halt Muslim-Christian clashes in the Maluku islands east of Sulawesi.