In an attempt to ward off attack, ethnic-Chinese sounding shop names or titles that could lead to confusion were covered and new signs saying "Moslem Store" or "A son of the country" hung in their place.

But the mob was unrelenting and did not even spare the home of one of the richest men in Indonesia, Liem Sioe Liong, known as Salim Sudomo, a long-time business associate of President Suharto.

It also attacked branches of Liem's Bank Central Asia, which he controls with members of the Suharto family.

An Indonesian of Chinese originsaid before the latest outbreak of rioting: "Try to understand, we Chinese in Indonesia occupy the same place as the Jews did in Europe during the Middle Ages."

Set apart from the predominantly Moslem population, the ethnic Chinese are Roman Catholics, Buddhists or Taoists.

Many hardly speak their own language, as the study of it is forbidden, but nonetheless they are judged different even if their families have lived in a particular town for centuries and have forgotten from where in China they originally came.

The Chinese community makes up less than 5 per cent of Indonesia's 200 million population, but they control about 80 per cent of the wealth in terms of capitalisation on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. Five of the six largest companies in Indonesia are owned by ethnic Chinese.

They have been the main beneficiaries of Indonesia's economic development over the past 30 years under Suharto, who knows he can count on their financial support without fear of any political challenge from within theirranks.

Since Indonesia's independence from the Dutch after World War II, the ethnic Chinese have come to dominate commerce to such an extent that they are blamed for any price rises and form a natural target for popular anger.

During times of difficulty the authorities often use this to deflect unrest away from the regime and towards the Chinese. "Thursday's looting, as the Army stood by and watched, can be construed as a form of primitive wealth redistribution," an Indonesian sociologist told AFP. "It made them happy, helped distract attention from the major economic problems facing the country, and gave them (the military) an excuse to increase the repression," he said.

But a senior Western diplomat said that without the Chinese community -- the guardians of finance -- Indonesia has no chance of rebuilding its economy.