Under an August deal between separatist rebels and the government aimed at ending nearly three decades of bloodshed in the tsunami-battered province, all non-local troops and police were due to leave by December 31.

But the ships that were supposed to transport the 2,150 officers home have been held up, Aceh police spokesman Djoko Turochman told AFP. The police were to due to leave later Monday.

"There was a delay in the arrival of the ships," he said.

A spokesman for the foreign mission monitoring the implementation of the accord confirmed the delay despite an official ceremony Saturday to send them off. He also said they were due to depart later Monday.

Indonesia withdrew its last non-local troops from Aceh on Thursday, fulfilling a major pledge made under the accord, signed in Helsinki in the wake of the 2004 tsunami catastrophe which killed some 168,000 Acehnese.

Under the deal, the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) dropped its call for independence in exchange for a form of local government, while the government agreed to grant ex-fighters amnesties and allow local political parties.

The separatist conflict had claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, since GAM began its struggle for an independent state in 1976.

The peace agreement stipulates that only 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police, all locally recruited, are to remain there.

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