Indonesian police in Poso of Central Sulawesi province intensified pursuing fugitive terrorist suspects on Wednesday after failure reaching agreement with local leaders to slow down the hunt and warned to shoot on site those provocating violence or illegally carrying weapon, Poso police chief said.

Police chief Rudi Suparyadi said on Tuesday that the police could not meet the request of the scores of Poso leaders to slow down the hunt of the fugitives, due to there were still explosions and shootings from unidentified person afterwards.

"We intensively pursue the militants, (and we will) shoot on site the provocators or those illegally carrying weapon," he told Xinhua on telephone from the province.

The police chief stressed the policy has been officially declared on Tuesday evening.

"There were several local leaders gathered here, demanding police to conduct the hunt gradually in order to not to disturb the community. I said we may be cooling down in condition that no blast or shooting," said Suparyadi.

"But last night there were shootings and bomb battles. We resume intensifying our hunt, the agreement is aborted," he added.

The police chief stressed that the shooting and the bombs were launched by unidentified people not from the police.

The police convinced that there are still many weapons illegally possessed by the people in the town of Poso, regarding some explosions erupted recently, Poso police spokesman Muhammad Kilat has said.

Three explosions erupted in Poso on Sunday evening, but no casualty reported, he said.

On Tuesday police in Poso called those illegally possessing weapons to hand them to authorities or to be shot on site, provincial police spokesman Muhammad Kilat said.

The tense of security has mounted in Poso since the killing of two militants and one policeman last week that followed by scores of blasts.

The spokesman said the policy was made to prevent more violence and to avoid more people get killed.

Separately here, Indonesian police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said 19 out of 29 fugitive militant suspects of implicating in the sectarian clashes with Christians that erupted from 1999 to 2000, are still at large in the province.

The strife left thousands of lives dead and was terminated by the peace agreement in 2001.

On Sunday, the police conducted a raid and found seven active bombs and seven kilograms of Calium chlorate in Poso, belonging to the militants groups.

The spokesman revealed that one of the slain militant suspects named Ryan alias Abdul Hakim of 40, whom killed on Thursday last week, was a senior member of the Al Qaeda link in Southeast Asia militant group of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

"He (Ryan) used to study in Afghanistan. He was in one group with Mukhlas," Bachrul Alam told Xinhua.

Mukhlas, who is on death row now, played leading roles in the series of suicide blasts in the country. Hundreds of people were killed in the blasts from 2000 to 2005.

"Ryan was a cleric whom had ordered other militants to prepare bombs for explosions in Poso," said Bachrulalam.

Poso town has been restored from the tense of security at mid- 2006, after the killing of a Catholic priest in Palu, the capital of the province and incident between police and Muslim communities in October.

In September last year, Indonesia executed three Christians for conviction of triggering mob into a sectarian violence in 2000 in Poso.

Scores of blasts had occurred in some spots of Poso before and after the executions of the three Christians, but no casualty reported.

Over 87 percent of Indonesia's 240 million populations is Muslim, but in some areas of eastern part of the country, including in the Central Sulawesi province, the proportion of Muslims and Christians is equal.

Source: Xinhua