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 The BBC's Richard Galpin reports"It's not clear what sparked this latest outburst of violence"  real 28k |
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He said the deaths had occurred in battles between Christian and Muslim gangs around the town of Galela, but added that order had now been restored.
Halmahera was the scene of some of the worst religious violence in the country's history when hundreds of people were killed in communal clashes at the end of last year.
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Last December, troops were deployed to quell violent unrest on the island of Buru, about 190km (120 miles) west of the provincial capital Ambon.
The move came two weeks after Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, visited the Moluccas to call for peace.
Mr Wahid told both communities to resolve their differences or face intervention from the government.
But the BBC's Richard Galpin in Jakarta says the government in Jakarta has so far proved itself incapable of taking any serious measures to promote long-term peace
Thousands flee
Thousands of houses have been destroyed in the violence and tens of thousands of people have fled to other Indonesian regions.
Residents have accused soldiers and police of escalating the violence by dividing communities along religious lines and joining in the fighting.
Unlike the rest of Indonesia, which is predominantly Muslim, the Moluccas have for centuries had a population evenly mixed between the two faiths.
Community leaders were able to peacefully manage disputes between Muslims and Christians until the fall of the regime of President Suharto in 1998 when people started to take the law into their own hands.
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