JAKARTA, Sept. 18 (Xinhuanet) - The rapid demilitarization of Aceh,Indonesia, picks up steam Sunday with thousands of Indonesian soldiers preparing to leave the province as part of a major concession in a deal with the rebels, local media reported.

    Military spokesman Lt. Col. Eri Soetiko said that two battalions - or 797 soldiers - would board a warship for the Sumatran city of Medan later Sunday, with more than 30,000 others leaving by the year's end, the website of Jakarta Post said.

    "We are really happy," said army Capt. Herman Harnas, as hundreds of troops gathered at the port in the northern town of Lhokseumawe ahead of the pullout.

    Some 6,000 Indonesian troops are slated to leave in the next few weeks, and another 24,000 in the months that follow. Some 25,000 will remain behind.

    A peace agreement signed last month in Finland is seen as Aceh's best chance in years to bring a permanent end to three decades of fighting that has killed nearly 15,000 people in the oil- and gas-rich province.

    But many remain wary following the collapse of three earlier accords and were closely watching to see if the military and the rebels would implement the deal on the ground.

    There have been several positive signs.

    The rebels said they thought they succeeded in handing over a quarter of their 840 weapons - a figure they provided themselves -to EU and Southeast Asian peace monitors by a Saturday deadline, with the remainder to be surrendered by December 31.

    There is a simmering dispute, however, over whether crude homemade or old weapons would count toward that total, amid concerns that the rebels were stashing away their better, foreign-made weaponry.

    But that did not appear to be standing in the way of the military's troop withdrawal - at least not yet. Enditem