The military assured the public that things were under control, and workers started a cleanup of the week of unrest, but foreign governments were not taking chances.

A major Opposition rally is scheduled for Wednesday amid mounting calls for President Suharto to step down after 32 years in power.

Some 3,200 Americans were expected to have left Indonesia by the end of the weekend on eight charter flights, a White House official said at the industrialised powers summit in Britain.

Japanese citizens were told to leave the country as soon as possible. "We strongly advise Japanese to leave Jakarta or Indonesia," a diplomat here said, adding the embassy had set up a counter at Jakarta airport to help citizens depart on 11 extra commercial flights over the next three days, in addition to 13 regular flights.

The diplomat,who has been camped out in the embassy for four days, said the mission could accommodate up to 400 people in an emergency. About 20,000 Japanese were believed to be in Indonesia as of Saturday.

Indonesian and expatriate families rushed to stock up on provisions but most shops spared from destruction in last week's riots remained shuttered. Huge queues formed at cash-machines, which had not been damaged in the unrest.

Tanks remained in place around the presidential palace and other strategic junctions in the city of 10 million people.

In Chinatown, scene of the worst riots, flames continued to lick the smoking ruins of a few shops as cranes lifted the blackened shells of cars onto trucks.

Workers broke off shattered windowpanes damaged by stoning during the riots, the worst in Jakarta since the 1960s.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's best known Opposition figure, was seen shopping at the crowded Kem-Chick supermarket in the mainly expatriate neighborhood of Ke Mang. It was one of the few storesopen for business.

People snapped up everything available and the stock of perishables was exhausted by noon, a store employee said.

At least five police guarded the supermarket, and one employee armed with a loudspeaker was controlling the flow of shoppers.

"I would say that it is slowly getting better today," a shopper told newsmen after visiting the Senen public market in East Jakarta.

"I think that the situation is half safe and half under control because only half the shops were opened and with half of the troops still on guard," he said.

The State-run Antara news agency said the armed forces (ABRI) assured the public the situation was under control.

"Ladies and gentlemen, go on with your trade and go to the market, because the ABRI will guarantee the safety of every Jakarta citizen," Jakarta military command chief Major General Syafrie Syamsuddin was quoted as saying.

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