About 178 foreign ''barons'' of illegal sawmills on Papua, Sumatra and Borneo have been detained since the imposition of a presidential decree on illegal logging last year, Kaban said.

``The largest number of barons arrested came from Malaysia,'' Kaban was quoted as saying by the Republika newspaper.

A spokesman for the ministry, Masyud, said 28 Malaysians are awaiting court dates in Papua province. Three other Malaysians were jailed for nine years each earlier this month in West Kalimantan province on Borneo while 10 others are still being processed for trial, he said.

About 74 forestry ministry officials have also been detained for backing illegal logging operations, which cost Indonesia more than US$3 billion (HK$23.4 billion) in lost revenue annually, Kaban said.

Indonesian officials warned in April that the so-called barons were targeting remote Papua province due to the lack of trees on Java and Sumatra.

Environmental watchdogs, in a joint statement published Wednesday, urged the government to review logging licenses issued by regional administrators which were contributing to further deforestation.

Any government review ``should be transparent and free from outside influence,'' the World Wildlife Fund and Indonesia-based Walhi environmental group said.

Environmental investigators say timber smuggling from Papua to China is the world's largest logging racket. The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said 300,000 cubic meters of merbau hardwood is smuggled out of Papua every month to feed China's timber processing industry.