Jakarta – Britain has offered its help to convince the United States to restore military relations with Indonesia, the Indonesian defense minister said Wednesday.

"The British defense secretary [Geoff Hoon] is willing to help us by persuading the US to restore military relations with Indonesia," said Matori Abdul Jalil. He did not give further details. Jalil returned home Wednesday after a 12-day foreign trip which included visits to Britain and the US, where he made the case for restoring the military ties.

The restrictions on military relations with Indonesia were imposed after pro-Jakarta militias went on the rampage in East Timor after its 1999 independence vote.

Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, US officials have lamented the absence of military ties with Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

They say Indonesia could become a haven for al-Qaeda operatives of suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said after meeting Jalil that Congress should ease the military restrictions, saying that Jakarta was dealing with past human rights violations "in an orderly, democratic way".

But some officials, including some in the State Department, are believed to be more cautious on the issue, fearing that Indonesia has not yet done enough to purge the armed forces of those guilty of human rights abuses.

The Pentagon has had no military training or foreign military sales programs with Indonesia since 1999 when Congress passed an amendment barring funding for those activities until Indonesia accounted for the military's role in the East Timor killings.