JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said intelligence reports suggested there were attempts to destabilise the country, including a plot to kill him, and urged authorities to investigate whether Friday’s deadly blasts at two Jakarta luxury hotels were part of the schemes.

Yudhoyono condemned the bomb attacks on Jakarta’s JW Marriott hotel and the nearby Ritz-Carlton, which killed at least nine people and injured more than 50, as “a heinous terrorist act”.

“I’m confident that the perpetrators and those behind this terrorist act will be caught and brought to justice,” Yudhoyono told a televised news conference, trying to hold back tears.

The hotel bombings came a little more than a week after the July 9 presidential election, in which incumbent Yudhoyono appeared set to win a second five-year term, although the final results has yet to be officially confirmed.

Yudhoyono has been credited with restoring security after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah since the start of the decade.

Yudhoyono called on law enforcers to investigate possible links between the hotel attacks and intelligence that indicated attempts to stabilize the nation during the election period.

He showed photographs of a group of people conducting a shooting exercise with the president’s picture as a target.

“We have the video and photographs (of the training). I received this information recently. This is not a rumour,” he said.

He said intelligence also suggested attempts were under way to sabotage his apparent election victory and his new term’s inauguration in October.

The president urged people to refrain from linking the hotel attacks with political rivalry in the elections.

“All theories and speculations must be proven legally. We are a nation based on the rule of law and democracy,” he said.

Yudhoyono, a former general, ran against former president Megawati Sukarnoputri and Vice President Jusuf Kalla in the three-way presidential race.