Indonesia was considering emergency powers to clamp down on terrorism as an international force was assembled to hunt down the bombers who killed nearly 200 people on the resort island of Bali.The United States and Australia also stepped up pressure on Indonesia to take action against Islamic extremist groups, as both countries blamed al-Qaeda for Saturday's car bombing on a packed nightclub.

Indonesian lawmaker Ade Komaruddin said the government had already consulted lawmakers about an emergency decree allowing for temporary anti-terrorism measures to prevent a new attack.

"We are facing an emergency situation and we have to save this nation," Komaruddin told AFP, adding that parliament would not oppose the move which could lead to preemptive arrests or detention.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has been criticised for failing to take action to combat the threat of terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation, and both US and Australian leaders have issued uncompromising warnings to Jakarta since the attack.

"I want to make it clear to her that we need to work together to find those who murdered all those innocent people and bring them to justice," said US President George W. Bush.

A police spokesman said Tuesday that 27 people have been questioned and two Indonesians were being detained for further questioning, although they have not been formally declared suspects.

Brigadier General Saleh Saaf said one of them was in the Kuta area when the bomb exploded and was linked to a man whose identity card was found at the scene. The other was related to the owner of the ID card, he told local radio.

Investigators were still combing the twisted wreckage of the Sari Club in Kuta for clues about the attackers and for traces of victims who literally disintegrated in the huge explosion.

Most of the victims were Australian, and Justice Minister Chris Ellison said during a visit to Bali Tuesday that some 40 Australian police officers would join the task force hunting the bombers.

He said the forensic experts and intelligence agents would be working with police from Britain, Germany and Japan as well as US FBI agents in an international effort to catch the perpetrators.

"We have forensic experts, people skilled in victim identification and bomb blasts here in Bali," Ellison said, backing away from earlier Australian criticism of the Indonesian investigation.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the attack as "very carefully planned" and said Indonesian investigators believed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, possibly working with a local group such as Jemaah Islamiyah, was responsible.

Indonesian intelligence chief Hendropriyono meanwhile told AFP the very powerful military explosive C4 had been used in the attack, which completely destroyed an entire street of shops and bars.

"What I've seen today is enough to break anyone's heart, a simply shocking sight, utterly appalling and it drives home to anybody the evil of terrorism, of mass murder," Downer said after visiting the site.

A US State Department assessment of the situation on Bali advanced the theory that local attackers may have had outside help such as target surveillance, operational planning and technical know-how to put together the bombs and where to place them for maximum effect.

"It is likely that following the example elsewhere in the world, the foreign technical advisors had left country by the time the attack took place," the report said.

The blast came within days of an attack on US soldiers in Kuwait and another on a French oil tanker off Yemen, which in turn followed warnings from the US intelligence community that al-Qaeda may be planning a new wave of terrorism around the globe.

The once-vibrant Legian strip in Kuta was reduced to rubble and ashes by the explosion and subsequent fire. Investigators armed with cameras, shovels and sticks were gathering evidence and body parts on Tuesday.

Police belatedly took action to safeguard evidence. The street was cordoned off and shielded from view by a tarpaulin, where mourners laid wreaths.

The attack claimed victims from some two dozen countries and the number of nations affected is expected to rise as the difficult identification process carries on.

The Indonesian authorities have collected 182 bodies, but only around 40 have been identified so far.

It is believed a majority of the victims will turn out to be Australian, although many Indonesians and Britons were also killed.
Because of the charred state of many of the bodies, authorities expect they will have to rely on dental records, identity cards found on remains and DNA testing, making identification a slow process.

PHOTO CAPTION

A line of flowers stand beside bodies of bomb blast victims in a corridor at the Denpasar hospital Oct. 15, 2002. At least 183 people, mainly foreigners, died in the Saturday night bomb blasts at a popular nightspot in Kuta on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. (Beawiharta/Reuters)