Security forces in Ambon have mounted a massive sweep for illegal weapons following sectarian violence which has left over 1,000 people dead in less than a year.

"We don't care if they are Christians or Muslims, they have to hand over all weapons," said Lieutenant Colonel Arif Mardiyanto, Ambon's military chief.

He said hundreds of weapons had been seized in house-to-house searches conducted by soldiers and police, including arrows, machetes, daggers and homemade guns.

Some 12,000 people sought refuge in army and police barracks in a desperate effort to escape the fighting, in which about 350 people have died in the past week alone.

The violence abated only after the army dispatched some 2,000 soldiers to assist thinly stretched police and marines.

Community leaders from both sides of the religious divide have blamed the security forces for using excessive force in dealing with rioters.

More than 8,500 buildings, including places of worship, have been either damaged or burned as a result of clashes which erupted on 19 January last year in Ambon and spread to at least five other Moluccan islands.

Appeal

On Sunday, the Governor of the Moluccas, Saleh Latuconsina, appealed for calm, as occasional gunfire could still be heard in the suburbs of Ambon.

On Saturday there were renewed clashes between Christians and Muslims, in which police shot eight people dead, according to local residents.

Police denied the claim.

The official Antara news agency also reported violence on Saturday in Masohi, the main town on the island of Seram.

A number of people were shot, stabbed or blown up by home-made bombs, the agency said, with scores of houses and buildings gutted by fire.