Anti-Malaysia sentiment mounted in Indonesia Tuesday despite the two countries' leaders having agreed to resolve a dispute over an area off the east coast of Borneo amicably through diplomatic channels.

Malaysia re-asserted its claim to potentially oil-rich waters off Borneo island Tuesday, on the eve of talks with Indonesia which is using warships to back its own claim to the area.

Indonesia has also sent fighter jets over the waters off northeast Borneo, raising the stakes in a standoff sparked by Malaysia's recent grant of exploration rights there to Anglo-Dutch oil firm Royal Dutch/Shell.

"We will protect our interest and our sovereignty, but that does not mean that we want to be confrontational," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

"We will not make the situation worse," he said, adding Malaysia would remain calm. "I don't think I should add to what already is a very tense situation with further tense statements that people will try... to misinterpret further."

Indonesia has sent four F-16 fighter jets and will soon have seven warships in the waters claimed by both sides. The military said yesterday up to 750 soldiers were on standby on the main island of Java for deployment to the disputed area.

The row comes as oil prices are near record highs and as relations between the two mainly Muslim, ethnic Malay states, are already under strain because of a Malaysian crackdown on illegal workers, many from Indonesia.

In Jakarta, groups of youths took to the streets and demonstrated outside the Malaysian Embassy and consulates, demanding Kuala Lumpur stop claiming the disputed area belonged to them.

In Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, dozens of protesters calling themselves the "Crush Malaysia Front" burned Malaysian flags to show their anger against Kuala Lumpur's claim, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

In Jakarata, dozens of protesters, including a number of Indonesian lawmakers, staged a protest rally outside the Malaysian Embassy demanding Malaysia extend its apology to Indonesia and pledge not to claim the disputed area as part of its territory, witnesses said.

Permadi, an Indonesian lawmaker, stressed that there was no need for Indonesia to hold diplomatic talks with Malaysia and said there was no ground for Kuala Lumpur to claim the area belonged to them.

"Everything is already very clear," Permadi said. "We find it to be unnecessary to have a dialogue with Malaysia."

On Saturday, warships from the two nations came into close contact in the area, but a standoff was defused when they agreed to conduct joint maritime border patrols.

On Monday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said they want to resolve the conflicting claims to the oil field in the Sulawesi Sea peacefully.

(China Daily March 9, 2005)