Indonesia's army chief has said that defiant former armed forces chief General Wiranto must follow President Abdurrahman Wahid's orders and resign from the government.

"The president has the right under the constitution ... to install and cancel the appointments of his aides, and this applies to ministers, including Wiranto," General Tyasno Sudarto said.

"I personally have yet to meet him, but my hope is that Mr Wiranto will follow the president's wish," General Sudarto said during a visit to the army's cadet school in Bandung.

General Wiranto, now senior security minister in the cabinet, has so far defied repeated calls by President Wahid to step down after being named last week by domestic and UN human rights inquiries as one of those responsible for last year's violence in East Timor.

The attorney-general's office is expected to take at least three months to decide whether to act on the Indonesian inquiry, which named Wiranto and five other generals as partly responsible for the East Timor bloodshed.

Pledge

In the Korean capital Seoul, where President Wahid is on the penultimate leg of an extended overseas tour, he said he had been in touch with several top generals in the armed forces by phone.

"A number of generals have pledged their support for me," President Wahid said.

"I believe it would be in General Wiranto's best interest to resign as soon as possible," he said. "I have a plan, in case Wiranto does not step down upon my return. I can apply a regulation that suspends him of his duties temporarily."

Major General Ryamizard Ryacudu, the commander of the Jakarta Military Region, said he would have fought against any coup attempt in support of General Wiranto by elements of the military.

"Instead of joining the plotters, I and the troops under my command would have fought them," the state Antara news agency quoted him as saying.

General Wiranto's own successor as armed forces commander, Admiral Widodo Adisucipto, was also widely quoted as telling parliament the military would accept the outcome of President Wahid's demand for General Wiranto's resignation.

Fragile

Analysts say that the president would undoubtedly win a face-to-face confrontation, but it would be damaging as he tries to cement his own fragile position and keep the lid on a fractious military angry at his efforts to reduce its political influence.

Some analysts do not completely rule out a compromise that would let General Wiranto stay, but with his political power reduced.

"He might keep his job," said Umar Juoro, a former adviser to President Wahid's predecessor, B J Habibie.

President Wahid has already said he would give General Wiranto a pardon.