'The latest violence, at least six people, including five suspected rebels, have been killed.'

'GAM claimed responsibility for the incident and said that GAM had shot dead three soldiers.'

The home affairs and foreign ministries are formulating an agenda for the proposed talks, Yudhoyono said. The former general did not say what would happen if the rebels reject the offer.

But he said the government had agreed to revive the provincial-level military command in Acheh, which was closed in 1985. The date of its re-establishment was still being studied.

The plan to revive the command has drawn criticism from human rights activists. They see it as an attempt by the military, accused of gross rights abuses in Acheh, to reassert its territorial grip.

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President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government last year granted Acheh greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region to implement Islamic law, or sharia.

But Megawati, a daughter of the country's founding president Sukarno, has set her face firmly against independence.

Jakarta has held peace negotiations in Switzerland with GAM's exiled leadership over the last few years but ceasefires have always broken down.

The previous government last year declared GAM an illegal organization and sent troops to crack down on rebels, resulting in a surge of violence.

More than 1,700, mostly civilians, died last year and 47 have been killed in the first nine days of 2002.

In the latest violence, at least six people, including five suspected rebels, have been killed, the military said Thursday.

Soldiers shot dead four rebels in a clash in the Nurussalam area of East Acheh on Wednesday night, Acheh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin told AFP. GAM officials were not immediately available for confirmation.

A 31-year-old soldier was killed in a rebel ambush in the Kuta Makmur area of North Acheh district on Wednesday, Muttaqin said, adding that another soldier and a civilian were seriously wounded.

A local GAM spokesman, Teungku Jamaika, claimed responsibility for the incident and said that GAM had shot dead three soldiers.

In another incident Wednesday, soldiers killed a GAM member and seized seven home-made bombs and two grenade launchers during a raid on a rebel base in the Tangse area of Pidie district, Muttaqin said.

Separatist unrest in Acheh on the tip of Sumatra island has been fuelled by years of human rights abuses by the military and by the central government's draining of the region's rich oil and gas resources.

© 2002 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.