Indonesia has told aid workers helping tsunami victims in its worst-hit region of Aceh not to venture beyond two large cities on the island of Sumatra because of what it described as "militant threats".
Indonesia's head of relief operations said yesterday that agencies would need permission to work outside the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the ravaged west coast town of Meulaboh.
Asked if Aceh was unsafe for international aid workers, Mr Budi Atmaji said: "Yes, in some places." However, separatist rebels have said that they would never attack aid workers.
Aceh is the main focus of international aid operations, bringing unprecedented outside involvement into an area in which there has been fierce fighting between the Indonesian army and separatist rebels for three decades.
The Indonesian foreign minister, Mr Hassan Wirajuda, said yesterday that Indonesia and GAM (Free Aceh Movement) separatists had reached a "gentleman's agreement" not to launch an offensive and to ensure that aid reached those in need. "It is not a ceasefire in the sense of a formal agreement . . . but this is a practical way to allow both sides, particularly our troops, to help the victims," he told the BBC.
The Indonesian government said that it was sending about 2,000 additional troops and 1,000 military cadets to Aceh to help with reconstruction.
A militant Islamic group in the world's most populous Muslim nation warned foreign aid agencies in Aceh not to stray from their humanitarian mission.
"We can work together. But if they came here with some hidden agenda - colonialism, imperialism or missionary, I think this is very, very dangerous," said Mr Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, a leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, which is helping with the clean-up.