Sri Jegarajah, Jakarta – The United States embassy in Jakarta has denied a New York Times report alleging Indonesian soldiers killed two US teachers last August, saying such a conclusion was premature because investigations were still continuing.

Last week the NY Times cited unidentified US officials as blaming the deaths on Indonesian soldiers who had ambushed the vehicle carrying the teachers and other Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold staff in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.

"The investigation is ongoing and we have not come to any conclusions about who is responsible," the embassy said in an email statement on Saturday, declaring that the report was "not true".

Papua is one of several remote provinces with separatist movements fighting for independence from Jakarta. Security concerns escalated after the August 31 attack on a mountain road near the Grasberg mine operated by the Indonesian arm of Freeport-McMoRan. An Indonesian man also died, and at least a dozen other people were hurt. The dead Americans were Edwin Burgon and Ricky Lynn Spier, school teachers employed by Freeport-McMoRan.

"We have urged the Indonesian government, at the highest levels, to mount a serious investigation into the Papua killings," the US embassy said. A satisfactory resolution of this case was a priority for the Bush administration, it said.

Freeport-McMoRan, through its subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia, owns the world's largest gold deposit in Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua, on the western end of the island of New Guinea. The military blamed the deaths on the separatist Free Papua Movement, a charge the group denied. The movement has asked for an independent investigation. The US has sent Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to assist in the probe.

The Freeport incident has wider ramifications. The US has been contemplating resuming military ties with Indonesia to further the alliance in the global fight against terrorism. The US suspended direct military links after allegations of human rights abuses and atrocities by Indonesian troops in the then-province of East Timor in 1999. Then, military-linked militia waged a campaign of terror against East Timorese before and during an independence referendum. More than 1000 civilians were killed and an estimated 290,000 fled.