Rebels fighting for the independence of Aceh province are willing to engage in peace talks with Indonesia but say the country is not serious about negotiations, a senior guerrilla said from his rural hideout.

"We remain ready to talk because so many Acehnese people are missing from the wars and tsunami," Darwis Djeunieb, a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) regional commander based just west of Lhokseumawe, told AFP.

Djeunieb also said five of his guerrillas had recently been killed in a government ambush, despite the military's pledge to focus on relief efforts rather than fighting after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami which killed about 170,000 people in the Aceh region of Sumatra island.

Djeunieb expressed support for the thousands of foreign aid workers in the province and mocked the Indonesian military's relief efforts.

He was speaking after a Finnish NGO on Sunday said talks aimed at bringing together the two sides would be held in Finland at the end of the week. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja later confirmed the meeting was to go ahead.

GAM's spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah, speaking from the Swedish capital Stockholm where the movement's self-exiled leaders live, said he had yet to receive an invitation to any talks.

From his hideout near a village somewhere between the farming district of Peusangan and the town of Bireuen, Djeunieb said the Indonesian government, which last week indicated it may sit down for talks with GAM leaders, is not serious.

"According to me it is nonsense, nonsense from Indonesia because they continue to say they will talk but there is no contact with our leaders in Sweden," he said.

Djeunieb was speaking by telephone because he said the situation on the ground did not allow him to personally receive an AFP reporter.

"There are a lot of military wandering around," he said, maintaining that his troops are abiding by a ceasefire they declared after the disaster. "Very clearly, we follow the ceasefire because the priority now is to improve the humanitarian situation," he said.

The commander alleged that Indonesia sent three battalions of soldiers, about 2,000 men, to the province after the tsunami disaster. "They said it was for humanitarian work but the fact in the field is, it is not for humanitarian work but to kill the people," he said.

Colonel Yani Basuki, the armed forces' deputy spokesman, called the claim "rubbish" and said the Indonesian military has adopted a defensive posture in Aceh. "It is very naive of GAM to say such a thing, because what the armed forces are doing is very clear and that is to carry out humanitarian work," Basuki said.

Djeunieb, 45, denied an Indonesian military statement last Thursday that 120 rebels had been killed over the previous two weeks. "It is a big lie," he said, admitting that some rebels died. Most of the victims were civilians, he said.

More than 10,000 people died in Aceh between the time GAM began its independence struggle in 1976 and May 2003, when the military started a fresh offensive against the rebels. Since then, the military says more than 1,000 rebels have died. Rights groups say many of the dead are civilians.

Djeunieb declined to reveal how many rebels are under his command but said about 60 have been killed since the government offensive began. The latest fatalities came last Friday when five of his guerrillas were ambushed in Jeunieb district, he said. "They were going to visit their families affected by the tsunami," he said.

Djeunieb said none of his troops nor those in other parts of the province died in the tsunami, although rebel families did fall victim to the disaster. Most of those victims are staying with relatives because they are afraid to go to official refugee camps, he said.

On the five-hour drive between Lhokseumawe and the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, an AFP reporter saw military posts located in close proximity to many of the large tents, often provided by government departments, where displaced people are living beside the highway.

The military has taken a lead role in assessing the needs of tsunami victims and distributing relief. Many of the military posts carry signs such as "Infantry Battalion Humanitarian Post." Thousands of foreign civilian and military aid workers from around the world, whose trucks pass constantly on the highway to Lhokseumawe, have been working in conjunction with the Indonesian military.

US Navy and Marine helicopters have provided crucial assistance by dropping aid from their helicopters to isolated west coast villages.

Djeunieb vowed his forces would protect the foreigners and their aid, and he mocked Indonesia's ability to deliver relief with its small and ageing fleet of transport aircraft. "How can they give aid? They have only six Hercules and sometimes they can't even fly!"