Based on data compiled from the Muslim Al-Fatah Hospital and the state Dr. Haulussy Hospital the clashes - which started on Thursday and continued until late Friday in the Mardika-Batumerah areas - killed 38 people and injured 104.

The clashes erupted after a group of unidentified people set a house on fire in the Christian Mardika area.

"Based on our list of victims, 21 Muslim residents died," Paing Suryaman, a doctor with the Al-Fatah Muslim hospital, told AFP. The toll included one soldier with the army's field artillery unit, he said. "We are also treating 54 people who were admitted with various injuries," said Suryaman. All of the slain and injured men had gunshots wounds, he added.

Muslim and Christian youths attacked each other with "all kinds of means, including homemade weapons, swords, molotov cocktails and arrows," in the Christian-dominated areas in downtown Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, he said.

More than 693 people have died and 1,534 have been injured since January 19 in sectarian violence in Ambon and its surrounding islands, the evening daily Suara Pembaruan said quoting a report from the Maluku police headquarters.

The newspaper also quoted President Abdurrahman Wahid as telling journalists on Friday that the problems in Maluku "are very complex. We are hoping that Vice President (Megawati Sukarnoputri) will go there as soon as possible."

Meanwhile Betty Lainata, a member of staff at Dr. Haulussy hospital, said that 16 bodies had been admitted into the hospital since Friday and witnesses had told her the victims were shot by the army's field artillery unit (ARMED).

She said the troops drove from the Karangpanjang hills area, two kilometers (one mile) east of Ambon, and had opened fire in the Mardika-Batumerah areas.

"Based on accounts from the relatives of the patients, the shooters were ARMED troopers. If we look closely, the security forces are being partial in doing their jobs," Lainata said.

Police and military declined to comment over the incidents.

Lainata said William Titioka, a lecturer with the Pattimura University, was also killed in a separate sectarian clash late Thursday in the Poka bay area, 8 km (5 miles) southeast of Ambon.

"He was already dead when we received his body, there was a gunshot wound on his lower left waist," she said.

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