The government took a hard line today against a bid for refugee status by Indonesians from war-torn Aceh province, saying that allowing them in could spark a flood of illegal immigrants.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar rejected criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) over the arrest last week of more than 200 Acehnese, including women and children, outside the UN agency's office here.

He charged instead that "it is not right for UNHCR to register the Acehnese as possible refugees when they are not refugees."