"Our existing stocks are much higher than the demand," he added, without giving further details on the stocks.Indonesia is one of the biggest rice buyers in the international market, and the move is likely to affect Thailand and Vietnam, Indonesia's biggest suppliers.Traders said Indonesia bought around 3.6 million tonnes of rice in 1999, or about 13 per cent of the rice sold in the world market.

Ramli said rice from existing contracts would still arrive in the country. He gave no details on how much rice from existing contracts would be imported.Bulog was forced to renegotiate 178,000 tonnes of old rice contracts earlier this year to help cut an influx of imported rice, which pushed down prices of locally-produced grain.

Traders said Bulog's warehouses across the nation were full of rice bought from farmers in the last harvest as part of the agency's efforts to lift ailing domestic prices.

"Bulog bought so much rice from farmers.. I think Bulog's stocks reach over one million tonnes and it will be able to sell only 10 per cent," said one trader in Jakarta."It has spent huge money to buy rice from farmers. I think Bulog still has money to buy more," said a trader in Surabaya, East Java.In a bid to lift prices, Bulog spent almost 500 billion rupiah ($55 million) to buy rice from farmers at official farmgate prices during the main harvest from January to May.

Indonesia's unhusked rice production is expected to increase to 51 million tonnes in 2000 from 49.5 million in 1999 driven by an expansion of rice planting areas and favourable weather.Bulog lost its monopoly on basic essentials in 1998 in linewith an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Private traders are now free to import rice, but Bulogstill organises most of the imports through its tenders.

Private traders to buy one million tonnes Traders said Indonesia had been expected to import threemillion tonnes of rice this year and Bulog was expected to buy half. But Ramli said private traders were expected to bring in one million tonnes this year.

"Our unhusked rice production will be enough to meet localdemand, so imports can be around one million tonnes of rice for stocks... but this will come from private traders, not Bulog," he said. Traders said Bulog's move would force Thailand and Vietnamto revise their export forecasts. Vietnam had earlier targeted exports of 4.6 million tonnes of rice this year with Indonesia as a main buyer.

"Thailand and Vietnam will only able to sell their rice toprivate traders. But I don'T think they will buy plenty of rice because it will be difficult to sell it again," said the first trader."It is likely that Bulog will soon sell its rice at lowprices to get rid of its excess stocks and to earn money," he added.