Wellington – New Zealand said on Thursday it will ask Indonesia to investigate claims that its military officers have been accepting bribes to place wealthy people on refugee flights out of tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

US-based Newsweek magazine said in a report that half the refugees who flew to Jakarta on a New Zealand air force Hercules flight this month were "well dressed people who paid up to US$80 to Indonesian military screeners to be allowed on to theplane."

The claim was made in an article on the relief effort in Aceh, which suffered the worst damage and casualties in the December 26 tsunami. Indonesian officials said more than 228,000 are presumed dead following the earthquake and tsunami, centered just off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province.

New Zealand foreign affairs minister Phil Goff said the allegations would be raised with Indonesian authorities, with a request they be investigated. If they proved to be true, New Zealand would expect action to be taken against anyone found guilty of corruption.

The primary task of the New Zealand flights was to take in supplies and medical personnel, he said. Rather than fly back empty, the aircraft were also flying evacuees out to Jakarta.

Indonesian officials are responsible for selecting those with the greatest need to be flown out. "There's no way that the New Zealand Defense Force can sift through people to find out who merited evacuation and who didn't," Goff said on Radio New Zealand.

Defense force spokeswoman Commander Sandy McKie said there were no plans to change the way the operation was running. "The system as it stands is working well," McKie told Radio New Zealand.

She said the priority was to get aid to Aceh and "if there are displaced people to go to Jakarta, then we will continue to carry them."