Five civilians have been killed in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, police and the military said.

The latest killings brought the death toll during an upsurge of violence over the past two weeks to 40, further straining a four-month old ceasefire agreement between the government and separatist rebels.

Three civilians, including an infant, were killed following the a gunfight between troops and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) at Blang Gapu on Friday, said Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus Komarno.

Kormano said the civilians might have been killed by strayed bullets. But a spokesman for GAM, Anwar Hussein, calimed that soldiers killed seven civilians and arrested 17 others during that incident.

On Friday an elementary school headmaster was shot dead by an unidentified man in the town of Langsa in East Aceh, local police chief Gaguk Sumartono said.

In a separate incident, rebels gunned down a motorcycle taxi driver in Pidie district, Komarno said, adding that guerillas also kidnapped a former village chief and a farmer.

Indonesia has sought a meeting with separatist rebels in a bid to salvage the December 9 peace agreement and avert a war that Jakarta has threatened to wage if it falls apart. On Thursday the government said Jakarta and GAM were nearing agreement to hold the talks in Tokyo next Friday.

Each side accuses the other of truce violations. The government also says GAM is spreading lies that the peace pact provides for eventual independence. In another blow to the accord, peace monitors have been withdrawn from field offices following intimidation by pro-government mobs.

The 26-year insurgency has killed an estimated 10,000 people, mainly civilians.