INDONESIA’S most wanted Islamist militant was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said yesterday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US President Barack Obama.

Indonesia expelled a leading American expert on south-east Asian terrorist networks for the second time in as many years, officials said today. No explanation was given.

Investigators hunted today for the two suspected masterminds of suicide bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, as Southeast Asian nations went on high alert to prevent a repeat of the weekend attacks.

As world leaders gathered today to co-ordinate more than €2.8bn in tsunami relief, doctors warned of a looming catastrophe from ever-more serious health crises – gangrenous wounds that require limb amputations, scores of children with diarrhoea, pneumonia caused by exposure to dirty water.