Jakarta – Indonesia's top security minister called on rebels in Aceh province Tuesday to disarm and "rejoin the nation," but didn't say whether fighters who surrendered would be given an amnesty, nor whether fresh peace talks were planned.

Local rebel commander Tjut Kafrawi said the insurgents would never give up their fight for independence in Aceh, an oil and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. "We still have strong support from the people, otherwise how could we survive," he said by phone from the province. "They still want us to fight for their freedom."

The war in Aceh is one of the biggest challenges facing new President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made vague campaign pledges to bring peace to the province. Successive military operations have failed to end the insurgency.

Foreign negotiators have predicted Yudhoyono may reopen peace talks with the rebels. The 55-year-old retired general was instrumental in arranging a short-lived truce with the Free Aceh Movement in December 2003 when he was security minister.

"The separatist problem in Aceh can be resolved if the leaders come down from the mountains and convince their men to disarm," top security minister Admiral Adi Sucipto Widodo told reporters after returning from a trip to Aceh. "I urge them to come down and rejoin the nation." He didn't elaborate.

Fighting in Aceh, a province of 4 million people, has been going on intermittently since 1870, when Dutch colonial troops occupied the independent sultanate.

The latest round of fighting began in 1976, which has left at least 13,000 people dead. The rebels are now demanding a UN-supervised independence referendum akin to the one that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor in 1999.

Almost 2,300 suspected rebels have been killed since Jakarta launched a new offensive in May 2003. Both sides have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including kidnapping, rape and murder. Although the rebellion poses a threat to Indonesia's unity, the conflict has been dubbed "the Forgotten War" because it has never captured much international attention.