A senior Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel leader who is also the group's spokesman said Saturday he escaped the Indonesian military's security cordon and is now in Malaysia on a secret mission.

"I didn't flee," Sofyan Daud told AFP in Jakarta by satellite telephone.

Daud is the rebel's chief spokesman and also commander of GAM's Pase district near the city of Lhokseumawe, where there has been intense military activity since government forces launched a major offensive on May 19 to wipe out the rebels.

"I am in Malaysia," Daud said.

He said he left Aceh more than 10 days ago and flew to Malaysia by airplane from Jakarta using a different name.

Daud said he is now in the Kuala Lumpur area on a "secret" mission and will definitely return to Aceh.

In a conversation with AFP earlier Saturday, he denied military allegations that the rebels were increasingly hemmed in by the military operation.

No information

The Kompas newspaper's website, quoting sources at Indonesian national police headquarters, said Daud "fled" Indonesia on Thursday, likely using a speedboat.

Police Brigadier General Aryanto Sutadi told AFP he had no information about Daud's whereabouts but added that Indonesian police had already alerted interpol to arrest "all GAM rebels, including their top leaders."

"If he is indeed hiding in Malaysia, then we will ask for him to be handed over to us because he and his colleagues have carried out terror and treason in Indonesia," Sutadi said.

Colonel Ditya Sumarsono, a military spokesman, said it was "quite possible" Daud had fled to Malaysia "but then again he could be lying by claiming that he was there while in fact he is still hiding from us in Aceh."

Close to 40,000 soldiers and police are battling a GAM force the military estimated at about 5,000 when the operation began.

The military said Saturday that 531 rebels have been killed and 1,277 captured or surrendered during the operation.- AFP