A total of 3,353 soldiers are due to withdraw from the North Acehnese port of Krueng Geukeuh on five warships and a C-130 transport plane, officials said.

Spurred by the December 2004 tsunami catastrophe, which killed some 168,000 Acehnese, the Indonesian government signed an historic peace pact with the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August.

"We realize that eternal peace is the desire of all Acehnese. Let us create a peaceful atmosphere and free the people of Aceh from fear and danger, both physical and non-physical," Aceh military commander Supaidin Adi Saputra said.

"The flame of peace is burning and we must not let anyone extinguish it," he told a crowd of hundreds of local Acehnese who assembled to witness the departure ceremony.

He said former separatist rebels had the same rights as the rest of the population and urged them to take part in rebuilding Aceh.

On hand for Thursday's ceremony was GAM representative Irwandi Yusuf and the head of the 240-strong foreign mission monitoring the implementation of the peace pact, Pieter Feith.

A student marching band played national songs at the ceremony.

Both sides dropped key demands as they negotiated in the wake of the natural disaster, and the pact has so far progressed beyond expectations. Earlier peace deals have collapsed amid acrimony and distrust.

The peace agreement stipulates that by the end of the fourth phase, only 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police, all locally-recruited, will remain in Aceh. Some 24,000 soldiers will have pulled out when the final batch leaves.

The separatist conflict claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, from the beginning of GAM's struggle for an independent state at the westernmost tip of the island of Sumatra in 1976.

The accord saw GAM drop its demand for independence in exchange for a form of local government in Aceh, a province of more than four million people. The government agreed to grant former fighters amnesties and allow them to start a local political party.

GAM surrendered last week its final lot of 840 weapons it pledged to hand over as part of the pact and dissolved its military wing this week.

Its members are now faced with the task of turning themselves into political players with elections slated for April.

The deadline for the weapons handover and the troops pullout is December 31.

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