Newly-installed Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged to take "strong action" against illegal loggers decimating his country's forests, promising they will be severely punished.

Yudhoyono described widespread deforestation – much of it done with the complicity of corrupt government officials – the hunting of protected wildlife and maritime pollution as "serious" problems.

"The government will take strong action on the perpetrators and will take them to court where they will receive the most severe punishment," he said. "We will not let this greed continue," he told guests attending a ceremony marking the national wildlife and animals day.

Yudhoyono, who took office on October 20, pledging broad reforms to clean up government, also said the use of dynamite for fishing in many remote provinces was damaging Indonesia's famed coral reefs.

Widespread deforestation has been blamed for causing deadly floods and landslides in many parts of the Southeast Asian country, as well as killing wildlife. Forest fires started by loggers also contribute to air pollution.

The involvement of army and police officials in illegal logging is common across much of the huge archipelago.

A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch, and Forest Watch Indonesia Reports said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares of forest annually – an area half the size of Switzerland. Forest cover fell from 162 million hectares in 1950 to 98 million hectares in 2000, they said.