BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The Indonesian navy has seized a barge carrying explosives and detonators from Malaysia and police have detained its seven Indonesian crewmen, police said yesterday.

East Aceh district police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Gaguk Sumartono told journalists in Langsa town that the barge was caught by a joint navy-military patrol in the Telaga Muku waters some 10 kilometers off the coast of East Aceh on Friday.

The boat had a crew of seven Indonesians and two passengers a woman and her five-year-old child, Sumartono said.

A search of the boat that had left Penang in Malaysia yielded 46 detonators and 55 sticks of power gel (an explosive material which is usually combined with other explosives), according to Sumartono.

The seven are being detained at the East Aceh police headquarters, Sumartono told local journalists, adding that because Aceh was still celebrating the end of the Muslim fasting month, their questioning had not yet begun.

Gunmen shot dead

Meanwhile, two gunmen shot dead a soldier in civilian clothes in Gandapura, Bireun district, on Saturday, the military commander overseeing several Aceh districts, including Bireun, Azmyn Yusri Nasution told journalists in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh.

The soldier, who was returning home after visiting his parents-in-law, was shot nine time with a rifle in front of his home as he resisted attempts by the two men to abduct him.

Nasution said the attackers, whom he said were members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), fled after the shooting.

The incidents came as Indonesian government and GAM representatives were on their way to, or already in, Geneva for the scheduled signing of a "cessation of hostilities" agreement today.

The Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre has been mediating the talks and the signing of the pact is expected to herald an end to the 26 years of bloody conflict in Aceh which has already claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Peace agreement

Human rights workers say more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, have died in the conflict this year.

Government officials have expressed optimism the agreement will be signed today, bringing an end to the fighting in the devoutly Islamic province at the northernmost tip of Sumatra.

A truce will be monitored by joint teams of international observers and representatives of both sides.

In Banda Aceh, some 1,000 people took part in a joint prayer for peace at the city's main mosque after noon prayers. - AFP