Motive fears around US aid

AMERICAN soldiers are being welcomed like heroes as they haul food and water into battered Indonesia - but their long-term presence could raise concerns that Washington is using the tragedy to establish a permanent military presence in southeast Asia.

But so far the US relief campaign for Indonesia’s Aceh province appears to be winning over even the harshest critics in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where many were furious over the US attack on Iraq.

The disaster has killed up to 100,000 Indonesians and left a million homeless, mostly on Sumatra island.