JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian police announced Friday

they had uncovered and foiled a plot to assassinate the president

and other top officials, massacre foreigners in Mumbai-style

attacks and declare an Islamic state.

The attackers planned to launch their assault during this year's

Independence Day ceremony to be attended Aug. 17 by President

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the country's top dignitaries,

national police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters.

The plot also included taking over hotels and killing

foreigners, especially Americans, in violence that would have been

reminiscent of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, he said. The plot was

revealed during interrogations of dozens of suspects arrested since

a February raid on a terrorist training camp in the western

province of Aceh, Danuri said.

"They were confident that all state officials and dignitaries

would be there," Danuri said. "Killing all the state officials

would have accelerated the transition from a democracy to a state

controlled by Islamic Shariah law."

Some of the newest information on the plot came from a series of

raids this week on militant hideouts in and around the capital that

yielded 20 arrests as well as a supply of assault rifles,

ammunition, telescopes and jihadist literature. Five suspected

militants were killed in those raids.

Most of those arrested were believed to have trained at the Aceh

camp, run by a group called al-Qaida in Aceh, a new splinter of the

Southeast Asia terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.

"If we had not detected them and their military training had

been successful, then they would have assassinated foreigners ...

as well as police and military posts in Aceh," Danuri said.

"Their plan was also to launch attacks in Jakarta against

foreigners - especially Americans - and attack and control hotels

within certain communities, imitating what happened in Mumbai," he

said.

In November 2008, a group of young Pakistanis attacked luxury

hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station in India's

financial capital, claiming the lives of 166 people.

Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population,

stipulates religious freedom in its constitution. The country has

been engaged in a long battle against militant extremist groups.