BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - U.N. and Indonesian officials said Friday they would not scale back cooperation with the U.S. military on tsunami-stricken Sumatra island despite terror fears raised by the presence of an extremist Islamic group with alleged al-Qaida links.

The Laskar Mujahidin set up a camp in Aceh province and posted a sign that read - in English - ``Islamic Law Enforcement.'' Its members said they have been collecting corpses, distributing food and providing Islamic teaching for refugees.

The presence of the extremist group, accused of involvement in Christian-Muslim fighting elsewhere in Indonesia, has generated fears that U.S. military personnel and others doing relief work could become terror targets. It also underscored the fine line foreigners must tread between being welcomed or viewed as invaders.

Australian and South Korean government officials said they were aware of security threats in the region and were taking precautions, though U.N. officials in Aceh said they would not scale back their cooperation with the U.S. military, which is ferrying aid around the stricken province.
 

``This is a situation where everyone is pulling together to help the people who have been affected by this disaster,'' Michael Elmquist, the U.N. official in charge of operations on Sumatra island, told The Associated Press. ``We need all the assistance we can get.''
 

A member of Laskar Mujahidin named Jundi, who only uses one name, said the group has set up four posts in Aceh and has sent about 80 members to Banda Aceh. He said the group would not interfere with foreign troops - as long as they kept strictly to humanitarian operations.
 

``We are here to help our Muslim brothers,'' he said. ``As long as they are here to help, we will have no problem with them.''
 

Analysts said Islamic terrorists known to operate in Indonesia would be foolish to try to attack anyone helping the hundreds of thousands of tsunami victims, because it could result in aid groups pulling out and sour the militants' chances of building popular support.
 

Indonesian military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basukim said the Laskar Mujahidin group was not seen as a threat in mostly Muslim Aceh province. ``There is no need to keep a special eye on them,'' he said. ``They and other groups are welcome here. They are not just sitting around, they are helping.''
 

A U.S. official in Aceh said on condition of anonymity that U.S. forces were aware of Laskar Mujahidin's presence. ``You've got to be on your toes,'' the official said. ``We're watching them. Something can happen.''
 

However, Lt. Cmdr. John Daniel, a spokesman for the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group, said chopper crews were not taking special security precautions.
 

But other security concerns emerged. The South Korean government asked its country's aid workers, some of them affiliated with Christian groups, not to engage in religious activities that could provoke Islamic radicals.
 

Also, in an apparent sign that American relief agencies want to keep a lower profile, several trucks delivering aid for U.S AID removed large banners marking the shipments as American.
 

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is predominantly moderate but hosts some radical Islamic groups. Non-governmental organizations of all kinds - religious, political and others - have rushed to Sumatra to help in the relief effort.
 

Laskar Mujahidin was founded in the late 1990s to take part in Muslim-Christian fighting in the Maluku islands in central Indonesia. It has been accused of having links to foreign-based terrorist groups including al-Qaida, according to a report by Sidney Jones, an expert on Indonesia's Islamic radical groups. It also reportedly accepted aid offered by an emissary of Osama bin Laden, Jones wrote.
 

The group was once allegedly headed by Abu Bakar Bashir, an Islamic cleric now on trial as an alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. Some Jemaah Islamiyah members helped the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.
 
 
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