US fears more Indonesia attacks

A car bomb was used in the attack on the US-owned Marriott hotel

The United States has warned militants may be planning more terror attacks against its interests in Indonesia, just days after a bomb ripped apart a US-owned hotel in Jakarta.

Ten people died and scores were injured on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded outside the Marriott Hotel.

Regional Muslim militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) - blamed for last year's Bali bombings - is the prime suspect behind Tuesday's blast, after a severed head found at the scene was identified as that of a JI member.

Indonesian Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said those behind the attack had trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they had honed "special abilities," the Associated Press news agency reports.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said "affirmative action" has to be taken to narrow the wealth gap between countries and thus curb terrorism.

"Only when wealth is fairly and evenly distributed in the globalised world community, will we be free from the tensions, the bitterness and the anger which make the deprived resort to violence and terrorism," he said.

'Soft targets'

The US Government believes extremist elements may be planning additional attacks targeting US interests in Indonesia US State Department

The US State Department updated an earlier travel warning with a new statement, saying: "The US Government believes extremist elements may be planning additional attacks targeting US interests in Indonesia, particularly US government officials and facilities."

But because security has been tightened around official installations, militants may attack "soft targets" - such as hotels, restaurants or churches frequented by Americans and other foreign nationals, the statement added.

Earlier in the week, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also warned of new intelligence indicating there could be more terrorist attacks in the Jakarta and Indonesia as a whole in the coming days.

Eighty-eight of the 202 people who died in the Bali bomb were Australian.

Gruesome find

On Friday Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri - in her first public comments since the hotel blast - warned that no government could defeat terrorism on its own.

In pictures: Bomb aftermath JI still a threat

She told diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) that the association needed to become a fully-fledged security community.

"This does not mean a defence or military alliance, but a more comprehensive political co-operation in which they share responsibility in responding to threats to regional harmony and security," she said.

Indonesian police say the explosives used in the Marriott attack, and methods used to bomb the luxury hotel were similar to those used in the Bali bombings.

The severed head found amid debris at the Jakarta Marriott Hotel was that of Asmar Latinsani, 28, from West Sumatra, police added.

The gruesome find was identified by two jailed members of the Jemaah Islamiah group who maintained they had recruited Asmar Latinsani, police said.

Police statements appeared to back up speculation that the car bomb, which exploded outside the hotel on Tuesday, was a suicide attack.

Bali bomber

On Thursday, an Islamic militant, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, was sentenced to death for the role he played in the Bali bomb.

But Amrozi's lawyers said on Friday that he is to appeal against the conviction.

Jemaah Islamiah was formed in the mid-1980s by two Indonesian clerics, and is believed to have links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Its principal goal is the establishment of a unified South East Asian Islamic state stretching from southern Thailand, through the Malay Peninsula, including Singapore and across the Indonesian archipelago, and into the southern Philippines.