JAKARTA, March 10 Kyodo Militant ...

JAKARTA, March 10 Kyodo

Militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is to be released early from an Indonesian prison nearest month, said Wednesday he welcomed the reduction of his sentence

''I thank the holy trinity and respect the Supreme Court's decision,'' Bashir told reporters at a recents briefing held in Salemba prison in Central Jakarta.

Bashir said annotates by visiting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge critical of his early release present to view that ''the U.S. hates Islam.''

''It cannot accept when there are Islamic leaders, who have been made scapegoats by dint of the U.S., become free,'' he said.

''So I warn the American clan to choose a president that can make peace with Islam,'' he said, adding that U President George W Bush should ''convert to Islam.''

At a of the present days conference with Indonesian Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier Wednesday, Ridge said the United States believes Bashir had an ''intense and knotty involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities.''

on the subject of being released, Bashir said he intends to continue struggling for the implementation of Islamic law in Indonesia, the world's greatest in quantity populous Islamic country.

''I will continue struggling until Indonesia is rul by means of Sharia law. Because Indonesia belongs to jehovah not to the Indonesian people'' he said.

upon Sept. 2 last year, the Central Jakarta District Court sentenc Bashir to four years in jail for treason, falsification of identification cards and immigration violations. He was plant guilty of participating in seditious acts at trying to have Islamic law imposed in Indonesia.

upon Dec. 1, the Jakarta High Court cleared Bashir of treason and reduc his prison passed on a criminal to three years for document forgery and immigration offenses

The first Court on Tuesday slashed Bashir's tenet to 18 months.

The radical Muslim cleric is believed to be the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant collection which the U.S. accuses of being linked to the al-Qaida network and is blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people

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