Jane Soepardi, the health ministry's immunisation chief, told AFP that early indications suggested that residents in Jakarta and other cities had responded "much better" to the round than the previous two, held in August and September.

"The public is showing less resistance to vaccinate their children than the past two rounds and this is a very good sign of awareness and response to our calls," she said.

"We are targeting 23.6 million children and we hope none of them will miss this."

Heavy downpours in some parts of the country however kept children away from some posts earlier in the day, she added.

First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, accompanied by Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, launched the one-day drive, vaccinating 10 children herself in Jakarta's crowded Maphar area in Chinatown.

"We have had good success in the first two rounds of vaccination. God willing, the success of the third round will be 100 percent," Yudhoyono said.

More than 250,000 immunisation posts have been set up across the world's fourth most populous nation.

Government monitoring showed that about 95 percent of children were reached in August and 97.5 percent in September. Multiple immunisations increase a child's resistance to the virus.

Polio infections have been confirmed in 295 Indonesian children here since it resurfaced in March, a decade after it was believed to have been eradicated. The last infection was reported on October 19.

There were fear's that Indonesia's outbreak could spread regionally, given the country's size, the recent onset of its wet season, and a health system already overstretched by last year's tsunami.

In Chinatown, dozens of mothers, toting sleepy and crying children, sat in an alley waiting for local health officials to mete out the two drops of vaccine to each child.

Wulan Supriyanti, whose 40-day-old baby girl was the first vaccinated by Yudhoyono, said she was not deterred by rumours after the first round in August that the vaccine was unsafe.

"I am proud to be able to bring my daughter here," she told AFP.

Some parents refused to have their children immunised in August following media reports that several youngsters died after the treatment, although officials said the children actually succumbed to other illnesses.

Fears that the vaccines could cause sickness largely evaporated in the second round in September, thanks to more aggressive public information campaigns.

Soepardi said the government was planning to hold two more rounds of vaccinations next year to ensure the complete eradication of the virus.

These would be followed by scattered immunisation programs, she said.

The waterborne polio virus attacks and withers children's limbs and can be deadly.

A global drive to eradicate polio launched in 1988 has been the largest public health campaign ever, costing more than four billion dollars, involving more than 20 million volunteers and resulting in the immunisation of two billion children.

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