September 9, 2004 - 4:29PM

A bomb blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta was a terrorist attack on Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

A bomb exploded outside the embassy about 10.15am local time (1.15pm AEST).

"It is clearly a terrorist attack, it was outside the Australian embassy, you would have to conclude that it was directed towards Australia," Mr Downer told reporters in Adelaide.

Mr Downer said all Australian-based staff were safe, but six Indonesian nationals who worked at the embassy remained unaccounted for.

"All of the Australians based at the Australian embassy are safe, two of them I think suffered very minor injuries, scratches, but nothing serious," Mr Downer said.

"There are six locally engaged staff who haven't been accounted for, that is Indonesians employed by the Australian embassy.

"That's not to say that in any way we would conclude they've been caught up in the explosion.

"We think, though, that there is a certainty of casualties amongst the local security forces who are providing protection for the Australian embassy."

Mr Downer said he would travel to Jakarta, along with heads of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), ASIO and seven AFP officers.

Mr Downer said the specifics of the explosion remained unclear.

"At this stage we don't know who was responsible for the explosion, it could take a bit of time to establish that, as is often the case," Mr Downer said.

"Naturally enough our suspicions turn to Jemaah Islamiah (JI).

"We had some advice a few days ago of a possible terrorist attack in Jakarta focussing on western style hotels ... but we didn't have any information of a specific attack on the Australian embassy."

Mr Downer said the explosion occurred "very close" to the embassy, adding "it was a very large explosion".

"We assume it was a vehicle-borne explosion but whether it was a suicide bomb or whether the vehicle somehow was abandoned and then the bomb let off, we don't know the answer to that," he said.

"The perimeter wall of the embassy have been very severely damaged, windows of the building on the side where the explosion took place have been blown out."

Mr Downer said the Australian embassy had been evacuated, with workers congregating on an embassy tennis court immediately after the explosion.

He said it was "dangerous" to speculate on whether the attack was purposely timed for during the Australian election campaign.

"It's quite an important point I think that we had some information which came from the Americans at the end of last week that there could be a terrorist attack against western hotels," he said.

"Whether this (explosion) has got something to do with this information, we clearly don't know, but there was no suggestion that that particular piece of information ... had anything to do with the Australian election.

"There was just no reference to that in the intelligence and I haven't seen anything in the intelligence which suggests anybody is trying to intervene in the Australian election.

"But I can only say to you, I simply do not know.

"We have to find out a great deal more about this yet, as we will do."