TEHRAN President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday said the riots by thousands of his supporters in East Java were the price Indonesian people had to pay for democracy.

But he did not pledge to rein in his supporters, who ran amok in the city of Surabaya and torched the two-storey headquarters of the opposition Golkar Party in the country's second largest city of Surabaya.

"All of this actually (serves as) a bitter lesson for all of us, and it should not continue. But this is the price we have to pay for the continuing process of democracy," Wahid told a press conference at the Merdeka Palace late Tuesday night.

The embattled president -- whom Parliament is trying to impeach -- said the mass demonstration in Surabaya demonstrated "enormous public anger."

Heavily outnumbered Indonesian security forces fired warning shots and teargas to quell angry protesters.

The protests -- the biggest since Wahid became Indonesia's first democratically-elected leader 15 months ago -- came as the frail leader faces mounting pressure to step down.

But the influential military gave him something of a political respite by joining other key power brokers in rejecting calls for early impeachment hearings.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report said Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday fired Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra for being too outspoken, the second cabinet member to leave in the past month.

"The point is, you are being replaced," Mahendra, speaking to reporters, quoted Wahid as saying.

"The reason is you speak frequently outside (the cabinet)," added Mahendra, who has openly backed calls for Wahid to face a legal investigation over two financial scandals.