Canberra – Australia's prime minister on Wednesday supported the Indonesian government's demand that foreign aid workers and journalists report their movements outside tsunami-battered Aceh's provincial capital.

Indonesia's Aceh province was worst hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, with more than 106,000 people killed. The region had been under military rule because of a long-running separatist insurgency, but has become the center of a huge international relief effort.

Earlier Wednesday, Indonesia's chief of relief operations, Budi Atmaji, issued a statement ordering international aid groups and reporters to inform the government of their travel plans outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, citing possiblerebel attacks.

Prime Minister John Howard described Indonesia's demand as "a good idea." "It is very, very important that in the process of giving full effect to this magnificent international response, that we recognize the difficulties in Aceh, but that we don't overreact to them and we don't dramatize them," he told reporters.

But Australian defense expert Clive Williams said the order from the Indonesian government was more likely spurred by their desire to keep close tabs on foreigners in a bid to conceal possible military corruption.

Williams, a former Defense Department bureaucrat, said Howard was taking a risk by cooperating with Indonesia's military, which is also accused of killing hundreds of East Timorese after the former Indonesian colony voted for independence in 1999.

"The big problem with dealing with [the military] in Aceh is that they're involved in a lot of corruption there and the reason I think they don't want people to go to some areas is because they're involved in human rights abuses in those areas," Williams said. "Having a situation of martial law and then civil emergency has allowed them to get away with a lot," he added.