Jakarta – The Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI) will soon send a protest letter to the US administration through its embassy here against the US Congress adopting a bill questioning the status of Papua.

"Our formal protest note will be conveyed through the US embassy here," Nicolaus Uskono, head of the KNPI executive board's foreign affairs department, said on the way from Shenzhen, China, to Jakarta, on Saturday.

Earlier, on Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had said during his visit in Shenzhen that he had read a copy of the bill that questions the status of Papua suggesting the US was supporting certain parties in the province. A copy of the bill had also been circulated in resource-rich Papua.

"I am concerned (by the bill) and unhappy about these ways because it's an internal affair. It's difficult for us to accept excessive interference," the President told reporters.

"I call on all friendly nations and the United Nations to respect Indonesia's territorial integrity and let us solve our own problems," he said.

Yudhoyono said such intervention could affect relations between the two countries which had begun to improve since his election last year and a visit to Washington in May.

Nicolaus who was in the President's entoruage during the latter's visit to China said the Indonesian unitary system covering the territory from Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in Papua was already final.

Therefore, he added, any party that attempted to interfere in Indonesia's domestic affairs would get resistance.

"We deplore what has happened in the US Congress. Their views are wrong and we urge them to say that what happened in the Congress was a mistake," he added.

He also said, Papua was part of the Indonesian unitary system and had a special autonomy to improve the people's welfare.

The US Congress recently approved a bill on Papua which if passed into law could increase international pressure on the Indonesian government to allow the people of Papua to vote whether to remain part of Indonesia or become an independent nation.

Section 1115 of Bill 2061 especially questions the Act of Free Choice Indonesia held in 1969, when selected Papuan elders voted unanimously to join Indonesia "in circumstances that were subject to both overt and covert forms of manipulation", according to the bill.

The bill asks the US. secretary of state to file a report analyzing the 1969 Act of Free Choice within 180 days after the enactment of the bill.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said in Jakarta on Friday the government would use all diplomatic avenues to block the act.

Yuri said he was confident Indonesia had room to maneuver diplomatically to block any potential negative impact from the bill.

The bill is one of four approved by the US Congress all of which concerned financial aid to foreign militaries, including the Indonesia military.

In the US, bills must be approved by the Congress and the President before becoming law.

"This bill is interesting because some of the clauses that were very critical toward Papua were amended. This is our main concern," Yuri said.