The 62-year-old billionaire, a key financier of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his coalition partner Golkar party, is fast losing his once-formidable political clout as stocks across his empire plummet, analysts said.

'Bakrie has lost his tenure as a major political heavyweight', political analyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar told AFP.

Mr Yudhoyono probably still feels indebted to Mr Bakrie for funding his 2004 presidential campaign, but the tycoon's continuing influence ultimately relies on how much money he can spare for future political battles, Prof Anwar said.

'He's now a minister, but if by (the general elections of) 2009 his financial issues can't be overcome... he may be seen as a political liability', she said.

Until recently, Mr Bakrie was considered the richest man in Indonesia with a family fortune estimated by Forbes Asia magazine at US$5.4 billion (S$8.25 billion), from holdings that span palm oil to coal and construction.

But as the US credit crunch turned into a global crisis, the spectacular commodities boom that fuelled the Bakrie family's profits went rapidly south.

His debts piled up, banks stopped lending and creditors started selling shares offered as collateral by holding company Bakrie & Brothers, economists said.

Trading in stocks in six Bakrie-linked companies was suspended in early October after they lost between a quarter and 40 per cent of their value in one day.

With around US$1.2 billion dollars in debt due next year, Bakrie & Brothers is scrambling to sell assets to the highest bidder even as those assets' share prices plummet.

The main prize on offer is a 35-per cent share in coal giant Bumi Resources, the world's largest exporter of thermal coal and a key money-spinner in the Bakrie empire.

The likely buyer is private equity group Northstar Pacific Partners, the Indonesian affiliate of Texas Pacific Group, which has been in talks to pick up the stake for US$1.3 billion.

Analysts said that even though his political star is falling almost as fast as Bumi's share price - which has plunged more than 50 per cent this month and 88 per cent since June - Mr Bakrie is still able to call in some big favours from his friends in politics.

Mr Yanuar Rizky, an analyst with the Aspirasi Indonesia Research Institute, said Mr Bakrie used his political connections to freeze trade in Bumi shares for a month as Bakrie & Brothers cobbled together the Northstar deal.

'It's very clear this was an intervention by the government... it broke the law', Mr Rizky said.

Stock exchange chief Erry Firmansyah denied there was any political interference behind the suspension.

The trading halt was only lifted after well-respected Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, formerly of the International Monetary Fund, reportedly threatened to resign in a tense meeting with Mr Yudhoyono.

An US$824.67 million buyback plan announced by Bakrie & Brothers last week slowed - but did not arrest - the decline in Bumi shares.

Bumi stocks tumbled another 9.5 per cent to 1,050 rupiah (S$0.14) on Monday, after Bakrie & Brothers confirmed it had defaulted on 144.9 billion rupiah of short-term loans to two local companies.

Trading in Bakrie & Brothers stock resumed on Tuesday for the first time since their October suspension and swiftly fell almost 10 percent in morning trade.

Investors fled after the company announced the value of the Bumi stake under negotiation with Northstar may be adjusted due to a share 'price discrepancy.'

While many here have relished watching Mr Bakrie get snapped like a twig in the global economic maelstrom, Econit Advisory Group economist Hendri Saparini warned that the source of his empire's troubles - the end of sky-high commodity prices - signals tough times for the broader Indonesian economy.

'Sixty per cent of Indonesian exports are reliant on commodity prices. So when prices are declining, it's a problem', she said. -- AFP