JAKARTA - ISLAMIST militants from the regional Jemaah Islamiah organisation were blamed for numerous attacks between 2002-2005 in Indonesia, including bombings on the island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people.

Officials said it was too early to say whether Friday's attacks were the work of Islamic militants, but suspicion is likely to fall on JI, which uses terrorist attacks to destabilise regional governments.

At least nine people were killed and more than 50 injured on Friday when bombs exploded at two luxury hotels in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia - where JI sealed its notoriety with the 2002 Bali bombings.

Many militants have since been arrested but several key members remain at large including top bombmaker Noordin Mohammed Top, a Malaysian. An Australian security report on Thursday said Jemaah Islamiah could be poised to strike again.

Leadership tensions in JI and recent prison releases of JI members raised the possibility that splinter groups might now seek to re-energise the movement through violent attacks, said the report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The report said JI was now a splintered group which may not be capable of replicating mass casualty attacks, but warned there was evidence that JI members released from prison 'are gravitating towards hardline groups who continue to advocate Al-Qaeda-style attacks against Western targets'. 'These hardline groups continue to believe that the use of violence against the 'enemies of Islam' is justified under any circumstances,' said the report.

JI's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

The group, whose name means 'Islamic community,' has its roots in Darul Islam, a group which fought for an Islamic state in Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s and survived a military defeat in the 1960s.

JI has carried out more than 50 bombings in Indonesia since April 1999, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, including the 2002 Bali bombings and similar attacks on the resort island in 2005 that killed 20.

The group is also blamed for Christmas Eve 2000 bombings that targeted churches and priests, killing 19 people, and the August 2003 attack on the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta - again struck on Friday - that left 12 dead.

A suicide car bomb outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004 killed 10 people.

JI is also suspected of involvement in bombings in the Philippines, where its followers have attended training camps, and of bomb plots in Thailand and Singapore.

If the organisation is confirmed as the perpetrator of Friday's bombings in Jakarta, it would be its first major attack since the 2005 bombings in Bali. -- AFP, AP, REUTERS