"This event took place (on Sunday) in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, during a ceremony of the opening of the Joint Chanceries of the Embassies of Aceh, Papua and Maluku by His Excellency Mr. Serge R. Vohor, the Deputy Prime Minister of Vanuatu," said astatement issued by Malik Mahmud, the prime minister-in-exile of the "State of Aceh".

A copy of Mahmud's statement was made available to DPA in Jakarta.

"We have heard of this from open sources, but nothing official yet from the Vanuatu government," said Marty Natalegawa, spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

Vanuatu, a former French colony in the New Hebrides archipelago, irked the Indonesian government earlier this year when it allowed the Papua Free Movement (OPM) to open an office in Port Vila.

"It would not be inconsistent with what Vanuatu has allowed its territory to be used for in the past," said Natalegawa, in a telephone interview from Auckland, New Zealand.

"This so-called opening would not have any legal standing whatsoever, because there is not a single country in the world that recognizes Aceh," he added.

Both the OPM and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are separatists movements, struggling for the independence of their provinces from Indonesian for decades. The Republic of South Maluku (RMS) is another separatist movement.