Another 6,000 Indonesians were confirmed today to have died in the tsunami disaster, bringing the death toll from the earthquake and waves that pounded Aceh province to more than 107,000.

As the toll continued to climb, international concern also rose about the impacts on the multinational relief operation from a 28-year-old separatist insurgency and a potential danger from Islamic militants.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was quoted as saying that there were fears foreign aid workers could be caught in the crossfire between separatist rebels and the Indonesian military (TNI).

"The insurgents, GAM, might get into some kind of a military exchange with TNI and it's conceivable Australians could end up in the crossfire there," the Weekend Australian newspaper quoted him as saying.

Downer's comments echoed those of Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who said yesterday he had pressed his Indonesian counterpart, Hasan Wirayuda, to safeguard a ceasefire between the military and the rebels.

"I made it clear that Canada wants that ceasefire to be respected by all parties including the military and the independence movement," Pettigrew told Canadian reporters in a conference call from Phuket, Thailand.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been fighting for independence for the resource-rich province since 1976.

The conflict has claimed thousands of lives and increased in intensity in 2003 when the government imposed martial law and stepped up its military offensive.

The rebels and government forces both announced ceasefires in the days after the tsunamis struck, but there have been many reports of clashes since, with the military saying at least three insurgents have been killed.

The military has accused the rebels of attacking aid convoys, an accusation vehemently denied by insurgent leaders who say they are only using their weapons in self-defence.

Downer also expressed concern over Muslim extremists targetting aid workers who resented the presence of Westerners in Indonesia, saying Australia was cautious of the threat as a long-term problem.

"In terms of Islamist groups, it's quite unlikely in the short term (but) I'm not talking about the medium term," he said. "Over the five years of this programme, it's something we would have to assess."

Subang airport as relief hub

Meanwhile, the government's disaster relief center said today the death toll from the Dec 26 catastrophe had reached 107,039, from Friday's figure of 101,318, with another 15,420 others still unaccounted for.

The health ministry, which has previously given out precise figures on the number of people killed in the disaster, said the death toll was 95,000, with about 77,000 others still missing.

The health ministry said this week it no longer intended to give a running account of precise numbers because of the difficulties in getting an accurate picture in the devastated province.

The UN has repeatedly warned the Indonesian death toll will rise dramatically higher as assessments are completed of communities in remote areas of Aceh.

Amid the gloom surrounding the relief operation in Aceh, there was another "miracle" story on Saturday of a 70-year-old man who was found under the rubble of his destroyed home 11 days after the disaster.

"I no longer remember how I survived. I only drank water around me because I could not move my body," the Kompas daily quoted Muhammad Zaini as saying from the military hospital in Banda Aceh.

Zaini lost his wife and six sons in the floods.

On the relief front, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced a humanitarian air hub had been set up at Malaysia's Subang military air base in Kuala Lumpur to help ease aircraft congestion and supply backlog problems in Aceh.

WFP executive director James Morris said the hub, to be used by the United Nations and other aid agencies, would enable at least 400,000 tsunami survivors to be fed over the next week.