JAKARTA (AFP) 9/23/05 - A Jakarta art exhibition has withdrawn a work depicting a nearly-nude male actor amid controversy in local tabloid media and a complaint to police by Muslim hardliners, reports said.

The work was not on display when an AFP correspondent visited the Jakarta biennial of contemporary art Friday.

The creation by artist Agus Suwage and photographer Davy Linggar, featuring an actor named Anjasmara, has been replaced after it became a hot topic in tabloid publications, the Kompas newspaper website said.

Press reports quoted the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a hardline Islamic group, as calling the work pornography and said they had complained to police.

FPI has in the past vandalized night clubs.

Kompas reported that the artists made two works, one of which depicted Anjasmara in a forest bare-chested but with his genitals covered by a white sphere.

A second work showed Anjasmara and a female model in a garden. The FPI said it depicted Adam and Eve, newspapers reported.

"This incident is truly beyond expectations. Apparently, people aren't ready to appreciate" such works, Linggar was quoted by Kompas as saying.

Most of Indonesia's 220 million people follow a moderate brand of Islam.

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