SYDNEY Australian aboriginal leader Geoff Clark slammed the country's state and federal governments Tuesday for allowing too many indigenous people to die in jail.

Clark, chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), said little had changed in the 10 years since a Royal Commission recommended sweeping changes.

Although indigenous people make up only two percent of the population, they make up 20 percent of the prison population at an annual cost of 255 million dollars ($125 U.S. million), he said.

"I'd be asking governments to revisit that report and analyze it and work through some of the issues that have had a totally devastating effect on aboriginal people," he said, cited by AFP.

Clark said all governments had accepted the Royal Commission's findings in principle, but 10 years later they were still "playing at the edges".

Western Australia and the Northern Territory had, in fact, turned back the clock and made life more difficult for aboriginal people with their compulsory jailing regimes, he said.

"This policy has compulsorily jailed petrol sniffers for receiving as little as two dollars (50 U.S. cents) worth of petrol to feed their addiction," Clark said.

Ten years ago the Royal Commission came up with 339 recommendations to reduce the high number of indigenous Australians in jail.