"From a humanitarian point of view, we really respect them," Solih, who is now portly and nearing middle-age, told AFP as Australians from the First Combat Engineer Regiment handed out purified water to tsunami survivors.

"Relations between the Indonesian army and the Australian army are good. Co-ordination has been good. We can work together."

Such sentiments would have been rarely expressed over the past five years by any Indonesian military figure, let alone a former Kopassus soldier who lost friends in the battle to keep East Timor.

Australian troops have been the target of much animosity in Indonesia since they led a UN-peacekeeping force into East Timor in 1999 to stop attacks from Indonesian-backed militias after the province voted for independence.

Australia played a leading role in gathering international support for East Timor's independence push, and its key role in Indonesia losing the oil and gas-rich province after 24 years of occupation has not been forgotten.

The neighbours' ties have remained fragile since, and the idea of nearly 1,000 Australian soldiers operating on Indonesian soil, especially in Aceh where another separatist conflict has been going on since 1976, would have been unthinkable until the events of December 26.

Nevertheless, Australia was one of the first nations to offer help to Indonesia in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster, which has left almost 115,000 people dead in Aceh.

Four Australian C-130 Hercules transport planes were among the first to fly in relief supplies and have been ferrying aid and displaced people since.

Among the rest of the Australian contingent are 130 medical staff running a 90-bed field hospital in Banda Aceh, and 180 members of the engineer regiment providing more than 115,000 litres of drinking water a day.

Aside from military help, Australia has offered one billion Australian dollars (764 million US) in donations and loans to Indonesia to help rebuild Aceh.

It is the biggest sum pledged by any country to Indonesia for the disaster.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said after the aid package was announced that he hoped it would be an historic step forward in relations between the two nations.

And while some Indonesian politicians and Islamic hardliners have spoken out against the presence of Australian and other foreign forces in Aceh, sentiment on the ground would appear to indicate the tsunami disaster is leading to some form of rapprochement, particularly among the neighbours' militaries.

Solih, who like many Indonesians uses just one name, was mingling among a group of about 10 soldiers providing security for the Australian combat engineers as they handed out the purified water on Monday.

Asked about East Timor, he said he had been stationed there in the mid 1990s and was deeply saddened when Indonesia lost the territory.

"Of course I was unhappy. Many Indonesian soldiers lost their lives in East Timor. East Timor had been part of Indonesia for years, and then we lost it. It was unbelievable. We never thought we'd lose East Timor," he said.

"But if there was a problem in East Timor, that was a political issue. It's another issue. They have come here to help the Aceh people. There's no problem anymore."

Sergeant Matthew Johns, a translator attached to the Combat Engineer Regiment, told AFP as he took a break from handing out water that many Australian soldiers had wondered how the Indonesian military would greet them.

"I think there was a bit of suspicion on both sides but that has been overcome... of course there have been a few teething problems. But overall we have had no major problems," Johns said.

Asked if the Indonesian soldiers had raised the issue of East Timor, Johns said: "It has been brought up a few times. There have been a few awkward moments."

But, with the Australian military very keen to not draw attention to the East Timor issue, he did not elaborate.

Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill also played up the positive impact the "Diggers'" efforts in Aceh were having on bilateral relations when he visited Banda Aceh on Monday.

"I haven't seen anything but a positive response. And that's at the level of the Indonesian defence minister that I work with, down to the military authorities on the ground here," Hill told reporters.