Jakarta – The government played down Friday a report leaked to the Australian media alleging that Indonesia's 24-year-long occupation of East Timor (now Timor Leste) caused the deaths of up to 180,000 people.

However, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia was looking forward to continuing the reconciliation process with its tiny neighbor and former colony, according to his spokesman.

"The President is concerned about the news of the Timor Leste report. But he has not received any direct explanation from the Timor Leste side," Dino Patti Djalal said.

"We were surprised because (news about) the report came not from the (East Timor) government but from another party. As yet, we haven't seen it," Dino said.

Indonesia and Timor Leste had already closed the dark chapter in their relations and had agreed to move forward, Dino claimed. "That is the spirit that we should hold on to," he told The Jakarta Post.

The 2,500-page report by the independent East Timorese Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) was leaked to the Australian media sometime this week.

The commission submitted its report to the East Timorese government months ago, but reports said President Xanana Gusmao wanted to keep it secret for fear of irritating Indonesia. He has since relented and was to hand it to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York on Friday.

The report, carried by The Australian newspaper Thursday, alleged that the Indonesian military used starvation and sexual violence as weapons to control the tiny country during its 24-year occupation.

Based on interviews with almost 8,000 witnesses as well as Indonesian military papers and intelligence from international sources, it detailed thousands of summary executions and the torture of 8,500 people, it said.

Thousands of East Timorese women were also allegedly raped and sexually assaulted during the occupation.

The report also accused Indonesian soldiers of having used napalm and chemical weapons to poison food and water supplies during the 24 years of East Timor's annexation since 1975.

The potentially damaging claims were rejected by Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono. He said the administration of former dictator Soeharto had "no means to import, let alone to produce" napalm weapons.

"So, why have some foreign human rights activists accused us of using napalm to kill East Timorese guerrillas?... In the Vietnam war, American soldiers used napalm to quell the guerrillas, while we have never allowed it in any kind of military operation," Juwono said.

He called the report, which mentioned the deaths of up to 180,000 people during the occupation, "a war of numbers and data about things that never occurred" in Indonesia.

Similarly, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Yuri Octavian Thamrin said the report was "unreal" and "impractical" because it was written purely from human rights perspective.

He cited an example of the Dayton Accord, an agreement to end the three-year war in the former Yugoslavia, which used many approaches, a part from human rights.

"It is also said that the Timor report was drafted by non-Timorese people. These people, currently living in London, New York or Geneva, might not understand the development in Indonesia-Timor Leste relations. Both countries have to live side-by-side perpetually as neighbors by geography, and both have agreed to move forward," Yuri said.

He said President Gusmao planned to meet Susilo in Jakarta on Jan. 27, but could not say whether the meeting would discuss the report.

There are fears release of the report could inflame tensions with Indonesia and militia groups that are still active near the East Timor border.

The US-based East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) urged the UN to publicize and discuss the findings in a bid to prevent a repeat of what happened in East Timor elsewhere and help find justice for the victims.

"Widespread understanding of the truth commission's report and recommendations is essential in charting a course of justice for victims," John M. Miller, the national coordinator of the rights group, said in a statement quoted by AFP.

"If such crimes are not to be repeated, the international community must acknowledge the devastating impact of the 1975 US-backed Indonesian invasion and quarter-century of illegal occupation," he said.