Labor says the Government must ensure proper safeguards are in place when Australia resumes training exercises with Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces early next year.

Exercise Dawn Kookaburra will take place in Perth over two weeks and concentrate on hijack situations. The exercise will involve Australia's Special Air Service Regiment and Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Kopassus.

Australia cut ties with Kopassus after militia trained by the troops killed East Timorese in the lead-up to the country's independence in 1999.

Defence Minister Robert Hill has defended the Government's decision to lift a seven-year ban on military training between the forces. He says the move is in Australia's national interest and will further bolster the fight against regional terrorism.

Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland says while the Indonesian unit will be a valuable partner in tackling terrorism, Australia must tread carefully.

"It is appropriate that the government look at re-engagement with Kopassus," Mr McClelland said. "But they must also make the case that Kopassus has fundamentally reformed its culture and guarantee that no one participating in joint training exercises has been involved in past atrocities or actions against Australia."

Any links with Kopassus are controversial because of long-running accusations of human rights violations in East Timor and the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and West Papua.

A report released last year by the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre urged Australia not to renew ties with Kopassus.

The paper said much of Kopassus' role would continue to be viewed in Australia and elsewhere as profoundly inappropriate, and morally and legally unacceptable.