The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency issued a tsunami alert, but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined that the epicentre of the main quake was on land.

By then, however, thousands of people had fled their homes and were thronging roads leading from the coast in Indonesia's impoverished Papua area, in fear of a tsunami resulting from the quakes.

One of the quakes was felt as far away as Australia and sent waves onto Japan's south-eastern coast, but there were no reports of damage there and no tsunami.

The first 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4.43am local time on land about 85km from Manokwari, the main city in the province of West Papua, which lies on the Pacific Ocean in the far east of Indonesia's island chain, the US Geological Survey said.

A 7.5-magnitude aftershock and a procession of smaller quakes, one as strong as magnitude 6.1, later rattled the region, according to US and Indonesian seismological authorities.

Various counts have put the number of deaths between one and four.

Reports have confirmed that a 10-year-old girl was killed when a wall collapsed, and one tally showed that at least 52 people suffered a variety of injuries, 37 of them in Manokwari, a coastal city of 167,000.

But Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters that based on 'unofficial' information, four people had been killed in the quake.

One of the main tourist hotels in Manokwari, Mutiara Hotel, was toppled and at least three people were pulled out of the rubble alive. Electricity in the city was down, and elsewhere there were reports of flattened houses and damaged buildings.

'Three hotel guests returned to their room after the first big quake. They failed to evacuate after the second powerful quake struck and got trapped in the hotel rubble,' said a staff worker, who gave his name as Harun.

The three were pulled from the rubble and treated in hospital for light injuries, he said.

A doctor at Manokwari General Hospital, Dr Andi Tatat, said that three other people were being treated for broken bones and open wounds, including a man who broke his legs jumping from the fourth floor of his hotel.

'The man wanted to jump into the hotel's swimming pool to evacuate but missed his target,' he said.

Manokwari police chief Piet Wahyu said it was unlikely that the toll would rise. 'Judging by the damage to buildings here, I don't see there being any more deaths,' he said.

Two hotels, two banks, a warehouse and a home were also heavily damaged, news website Detikcom reported.

In the town of Sorong, around 350km west of Manokwari, at least four houses were levelled and 15 people injured.

Military tents had been set up there to treat the injured outside a hospital in case it collapsed, hospital spokesman Ruslan said.

'There are some cracks in the hospital's walls,' he said. 'We're afraid it could collapse if there are more quakes.'

Memories are still raw of the devastation wrought by the 2004 tsunami, which was set off by a massive undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The giant waves killed 168,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and Nias Island.

Quakes centred on land pose little tsunami threat to Indonesia itself, but those close to the coast can still churn up large waves emanating out to other countries like Japan.

Papua is the Indonesian portion of New Guinea island, located about 3,000km east of the capital Jakarta. It is among the nation's least developed areas, and a low-level insurgency has simmered in the resource-rich region for years.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' and is prone to seismic and volcanic activity.

The Ring of Fire stretches along the western coast of the Americas, through the island nations of the South Pacific and on through South-east Asia.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS