Todd S. Purdum, Manila – Secretary of State Colin L. Powell announced on Friday that the Bush administration would resume direct military training aid to Indonesia for the first time in a decade, in a move aimed at bolstering the efforts against terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Secretary Powell held a daylong series of meetings in Jakarta with President Megawati Sukarnoputri before flying here for consultations with Philippine officials.

He said that $4 million would be provided initially to Indonesia and that in all, the administration expected to spend about $50 million over the next two years for counterterrorism programs. Virtually all of it is already appropriated, with most for civilian and police training.

Still, the announcement was the clearest sign yet of the administration's resolve to restore military cooperation, which was sharply curtailed in the early 1990's and cut off altogether three years ago out of Congressional concern over human rights abuses by Indonesian troops.

Other Southeast Asian nations have complained that Indonesia has not been aggressive enough in rooting out militant groups and have urged the United States to resume aid, though Secretary Powell acknowledged that the move would prompt criticism.

"We are starting down a path to a more normal relationship with respect to military-to-military," Secretary Powell said at a news conference, adding that American training would help Indonesian forces learn respect for human rights and civilian control of the military. "We not there yet, but we're starting."

Here in the Philippines, 1,000 American troops have just completed a six-month training effort aimed at helping the country's military in its fight against the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, an Islamic group that turned to kidnappings for ransom. Secretary Powell was to discuss the next round of expected military training with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Before he arrived, knots of protesters, fearful that the United States wants to re-establish a military presence here, scuffled with police near the United States Embassy, leaving at least a dozen people injured.

Secretary Powell said this morning that he would make "no attempt to roll the clock back" to the days before the United States withdrew its bases from the Philippines. He said the next round of military operations here would be smaller than the one just concluded but added, "We will continue to assist them in training, perhaps at company level," though not in active patrols.

Human rights groups promptly criticized the announcement about Indonesia. "Before giving aid, the US should calculate the impact," said Henardi, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association. "No matter how small it is for the military, they could use it to justify past repression."

The initial $4 million is for "counterterrorism fellowships" part of a $17 million fund for such programs in the current Pentagon budget that is just now being allocated worldwide. The administration skirted the Congressional ban that bars contributions to the Indonesian military from the State Department's foreign operations budget by taking the money from a Pentagon account instead.

There is growing support on Capitol Hill for broader aid. Last month the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $400,000 for Indonesian military training for the fiscal year that starts October 1, lifting a previous provision that had limited such funds to civilian training. Congress is expected to approve that as part of the appropriations process this fall, while keeping in place a ban on arms sales. Indonesian officials have complained that the curbs on American military assistance have hurt their ability to combat terrorism in a nation of 17,000 islands.

State Department officials emphasized that the bulk of the $50 million, about $47 million, would go to train Indonesia's fledgling national police force. The officials said that more direct aid to the Indonesian military would require action by the Indonesian government to hold accountable the officers responsible for violence in East Timor and elsewhere.

The United Nations has estimated that more than 1,000 people died at the hands of pro-Jakarta militias, backed by the Indonesian military, around the 1999 independence vote in East Timor.

The Indonesian Army remains the most powerful national institution as the country weathers the turbulent transition to democracy that began in 1998, and its officers also finance their operations through ownership of businesses, from commercial real estate to a domestic airline.

After a meeting with senior Indonesian military and security officials, Secretary Powell said he had raised some specific cases, though he declined to give details.

Another senior official said, "We made it clear that results on that path were what was going to matter in terms of how far we would be able to move."

But Secretary Powell said that after a somewhat shaky start in the wake of September 11, the administration was "very satisfied and pleased with what Indonesia has been doing," to fight militant groups, though he added, "We think more can be done."

President Megawati's government has moved cautiously against these groups for fear of alienating the country's overwhelmingly Muslim population before elections in 2004. Malaysia and Singapore have accused Indonesia of allowing Abu Bakar Basyir, the leader of a group with links to Al Qaeda, to roam free. The government maintains there is no evidence that he has committed any crime.