The Indonesian government says it has no reason to terminate the service of the country's Palapa satellite for Hezbollah-linked TV station Al Manar, saying the deal with the Lebanese broadcaster is based purely on business considerations.

The government would not intervene in the business agreement between the country's second biggest telecommunication operator Indosat and Al Manar, Communications and Information Minister M. Nuh said Thursday.

"It is not within the government's authority to interfere in this matter.... We will just stick to the regulation," Nuh told reporters at the State Palace.

"We don't want intervention from any country that would change the basic principles of our independence.... We just leave it to Indosat as an independent business entity."

Officials at the U.S Embassy here had reportedly sent a letter to the ministry's office and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission asking the Indonesian government to cancel the services provided to Al Manar.

The station might broadcast Hezbollah propaganda that promotes violence and hatred for the West and Jews, they said.

"I talked to U.S Embassy information staff a couple of months ago and conveyed our standpoint. I said the Indonesian government respects the agreement as long as it is still in line with the rule of law," Nuh said.

However, he denied receiving a letter from the U.S government.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said the United States opposed Hezbollah and "all its constituent arms" wherever they appeared in the world.

"Al-Manar, its parent and affiliates form a recognized arm of Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization under multiple counterterrorism authorities," he was quoted by AFP as saying.

"The U.S. government has expressed, and will continue to express, its concerns about Hezbollah and Al-Manar television worldwide, and remains firmly opposed to their exploitation of the media to promote terrorist acts, including broadcasts designed to incite imminent violence and likely to produce violence."

He said the U.S. Embassy had "shared its concerns" about the broadcaster with the Indonesian government.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Wednesday Indonesia could understand the United States' concerns about Hezbollah.

"I have also checked and there is no request from the U.S. government for us to follow up on the issue," he said.

Indosat said the decision to take Al Manar as a client was purely a commercial decision, adding that management was unaware of Al Manar's links to Hezbollah.

Al Manar is formally owned by the Lebanese Media Group and began broadcasting in Beirut in 1991. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" is a key player in what Hezbollah -- a Shia Muslim militia organization -- calls its "psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy".

Ali Assegaf, Al Manar's representative in Indonesia, was quoted as saying it was just an ordinary television station, but one focused on the struggle of the Palestinian people, and added it did not broadcast messages of terror, nor was it exclusively Islamic in its content.

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