BANDA ACEH (Indonesia) - AN ISLAMIC law authorising the stoning to death of adulterers and the whipping of homosexuals in Indonesia's Aceh province will be reviewed, officials said.

The law enacted by the former Aceh Legislative Council on September 14 would be reconsidered by the newly elected council and has not been signed into effect by the governor of the conservative Muslim province.

Human rights activists and officials in Jakarta have expressed concern that lawmakers in Aceh are out of step with the rest of the mainly moderate Muslim country, and have asked for the law to be withdrawn.

'The governor has refused to sign the by-law because of the stoning (provision), which is identical to a death sentence,' Aceh government spokesman Abdul Hamid Zein told AFP, adding: 'From the beginning the Acehnese government hasn't agreed with the stoning law. We hope the parliament will discuss the law again.'

The new regulations - which allow punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling - were unanimously passed by lawmakers in the final weeks of the outgoing parliament.

They are supposed to replace elements of Indonesia's secular criminal code, causing umbrage in Jakarta which wants to portray Indonesia as a developing, modernising democracy with a moderate Muslim majority. -- AFP