Jakarta – In a new role, General Anthony Zinni, the Bush administration's envoy to the Middle East, has met Indonesian officials in an effort to find a solution to the long-running but little publicised guerrilla conflict in Aceh, the nation's resource-rich northern province.

The general, who relished trying to settle conflicts in Somalia, Ethiopia and Pakistan but had never been here, the world's most populous Muslim country, came to Indonesia in a private capacity as an unpaid adviser to a Swiss organisation, the Henri Dunant Centre. The group specialises in trying to resolve civil conflicts through negotiation.

General Zinni emerged from a meeting with the coordinating minister for security affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with an optimistic assessment about the possibility of a settlement between separatist guerrillas and the government.

"I think all sides are convinced that the way to peace is through dialogue, and I'm convinced we have a momentum now," the general said.

The mere presence of such a high-profile mediator was interpreted as progress. The Indonesians are traditionally wary of outsiders interfering in what they consider their internal affairs.

General Zinni first had a secret meeting in Singapore last weekend with Mr Yudhoyono and the army chief. When the general's meetings with the guerrillas in Aceh itself were greeted without the usual hostility to foreign negotiators, the Indonesian Government let down its guard.