Jakarta – The Indonesian authorities said yesterday that the FBI had cleared the army of being involved in the killing of two Americans in Papua last year. However, the American Embassy declined to confirm the claim by military police chief A.B. Sulaiman.

The latter, quoted by Koran Tempo newspaper, said a visiting FBI team told him of its conclusions in a meeting last week. "The conclusion was the result of investigations by the FBI in the field and the ballistic tests on bullet casings found at the scene," he said.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying employees of the US-owned Freeport copper and gold mine in Timika district in August last year. Two US teachers and their Indonesian colleague were killed and 12 others were wounded.

The US Embassy indicated that the investigations were not over yet. "The team is working well and is looking forward to continuing cooperation with the Indonesian police," said spokesman Stanley Harsha.

According to police in Papua, a witness had linked Indonesian special forces soldiers to the killings. The military blamed separatist rebels.

FBI agents made their first visit to Papua in January but expressed concern that they were not given full access to witnesses or evidence. They paid another visit early this month.

The US administration, which suspended military ties in 1999 over the bloodshed in the former East Timor, has been seeking closer defence ties with Indonesia as part of its war on terror.

But it says it cannot resume most of the links without a full accounting for military abuses and an inquiry into the Timika killings. In an earlier report, Papua Police Chief Inspector General Timbul Silaen was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that the FBI had questioned a number of people but "none of those witnesses were military".