JAKARTA, Aug. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesia' Aceh Province will not become a federal state after the signing of the Helsinki peace accord by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said on Wednesday.

    "No, Aceh won't become a federal state as feared by various quarters," Sofyan said before attending a Merdeka Palace function to mark Indonesian Independence Day.

    The rejection of the agreement's contents by a number of parties was something normal in a democracy, Antare News Agency quoted Sofyan, who was also one of the members of the Indonesian delegation to the Helsinki peace talks, as saying.

    Sofyan said the things the government had agreed on with GAM were conform to the law on special autonomy for Aceh.

    Earlier, Indonesia's second largest political party -- the Democrats Party expressed hope that Aceh province after the signing of the MoU would not become the embryo of a federalist or neo-separatist movement.

    Meanwhile, Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday that those who worried that Aceh would become a federal state had failed to read and understand the law.

    "A federal state is a figure of speech from those who haven't read and understood the law on special autonomy," Kalla said.

    The Indonesian government signed the peace agreement with GAM on Monday in Helsinki in a bid to end the three decades conflict in Aceh, in which about 15,000 people had been killed. Enditem