WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama strongly condemned bombings at two luxury hotels in Indonesia on Friday and said the United States stands ready to assist the Jakarta government.

In a written statement, Obama extended his deepest condolences to the victims and their loved ones.

JAKARTA - SUSPECTED Islamist suicide bombers detonated high-explosive devices in two luxury Jakarta hotels popular with foreigners on Friday, killing at least nine people, officials said.

Witnesses described grim scenes with bloodied survivors fleeing in panic from the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels, as terrorism returned to the world's most populous Muslim nation after four years without a major attack.

JAKARTA - TWIN bombings that killed at least nine people at luxury hotels in Jakarta on Friday were 'terrorist' acts by 'spreaders of death", Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.