Sectarian clashes in Ambon

Fresh violence has erupted between Christians and Muslims in the Indonesian town of Ambon -- the provincial capital of the Moluccan islands.

More than twenty people are reported to have been killed in what the BBC correspondent in Indonesia has described as the worst outburst of violence in the area since January.

Many of the deaths and injuries are reported to have been caused by the security forces opening fire on rival groups, to try to stop them attacking each other.

Tension in the province has been heightened by the recent arrival of about two-thousand Muslim volunteer paramilitaries known as the Lashkar Jihad who've received military training near the capital, Jakarta. More than two-and-a-half thousand people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the islands over the past sixteen months.

Correspondents say the strife is linked with old rivalries and more recent complaints by Christians that Muslim newcomers from other parts of Indonesia have been taking their jobs.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service