JAKARTA Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya Province should retain 80 percent of revenue from local resources under a special autonomy status promised by Jakarta for May 1, Irian Jaya officials said on Monday.

Irian Jaya Governor Jacobus Solossa, accompanied by several local MPs and community leaders, explained the division of revenues after presenting draft autonomy regulations to President Abdurrahman Wahid at the state palace, the state Antara news agency reported.

Indonesia's central government would get a mere 20 percent of revenue from Irian Jaya's rich gas, timber, copper, gold, and other mineral reserves under the draft regulations.

Jakarta rakes in enormous revenue from the vast Freeport gold and copper mine in Irian Jaya's central highlands.

Irian Jaya also stands to reap big payments from BP Amoco PLC's exploitation of the Tangguh gas fields in the province's west, which BP plans to export to China within the next five years.

The draft regulations were drawn up by a 14-member team called the forum to examine special autonomy laws for a new Papua.

Under the forum's proposals, the provincial government of Irian Jaya, known locally as west Papua, would collect between 16 and 20 trillion rupiah a year in revenue (1.5 billion to 1.8 billion dollars), about six times its current 2.8 trillion rupiah.

Solossa said the forum's proposals were the best way to turn Irian Jaya into a prosperous region, antara reported.

The forum called on Jakarta to open dialogue with pro-independence leaders to resolve differences over the history of Irian Jaya's integration.

Pro-independence leaders maintain that a UN-backed plebiscite in 1969, which ratified Indonesian sovereignty over the former dutch colony, was flawed and unrepresentative.

The Wahid government has ruled out independence for Irian Jaya and has offered it instead the special autonomy.

The forum also requested the unconditional release of all political prisoners while pressing the government to form an independent team to investigate human rights abuses.

Dozens of independence advocates, including the chairman and four senior leaders of the pro-independence Papua presidium, have been arrested across Irian Jaya in a crackdown on separatism in recent months.

The presidium members have been released pending trial this month on subversion charges, AFP reported.

Jakarta devolved wide-ranging powers to 361 district governments and 29 provinces under an ambitious decentralization policy, aimed at taming separatist sentiments, that took effect on January 1.

It has promised to implement "special" extra-broad autonomy to Aceh and Irian Jaya, the two provinces at either end of the archipelago that are both rich in resources and hotbeds of separatist movements.

The central government has for decades exploited Irian Jaya's abundant resources and given little back in return, fuelling deep resentment among the province's mainly Melanesian Christian indigenous population.