They said the quake, centred in the Banda Sea, was unlikely to cause a tsunami like the one which devastated westernmost Aceh province in December.

"It is highly unlikely the quake could trigger a tsunami since its focus is located too deep under the sea. We have not received any reports of tsunami over the last two hours," said Suyanto of the meteorology and geophysics office in Jakarta.

An official of the Japanese meteorological agency added: "No tsunami can be expected of an earthquake which occurs 100 kilometers (62 miles) or more below."

The quake occurred at 5:42 pm (1042 GMT) with its epicenter in the Banda Sea about 320 kilometers southwest of the town of Tual on Kai Kecil island in the Malukus, formerly known as the "Spice Islands", officials said.

The French Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg recorded the earthquake at 7.1 points on the Richter scale. Authorities in Australia said the quake measured 7.5 while Japanese seismologists recorded it at 7.2 and Hong Kong's agency estimated the strength at 6.8.

Strasbourg's observatory said the quake hit at 1041 GMT, and had its epicentre about 300 kilometers northeast of Timor island.

The Indonesian meteorology agency said the tremor was felt in the coastal towns of Jayapura, Sorong, Merauke and Manokwari on easternmost Papua province, as well as in Ambon city in Maluku province.

Residents in the coastal town of Waingapu in East Nusa Tenggara province also experienced earth movements.

A policeman in Jayapura, Suryadi Diaz, told AFP that the quake was "hardly felt" and no casualties or damage had been reported following the tremor.

A soldier on duty in Ambon also said that he had not received reports of death or destruction from town residents.

The shaking lasted between five and 10 seconds, according to witnesses interviewed on radio. Residents of several towns rushed outside their homes in a panic, they said.

Two consecutive earthquakes measuring 3.7 and 5.0 on the Richter scale shook the resort island of Bali earlier Wednesday.

More than 230,000 people are believed to have died in Indonesia's westernmost Aceh province when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake unleashed a tsunami that devastated the coastline in December.

In Australia, ABC television reported the quake was strongly felt across a wide stretch of territory in the country's north.

Geoscience Australia spokesman Chris Thompson also said there were no immediate reports of damage but the quake was felt in the northern capital of Darwin and at least 140 kilometres away from the city.

"We've got a preliminary report of an earthquake... of magnitude 7.5," he said.

Darwin resident Paul Dyer, who lives about three kilometres from the city centre, had just sat down on his couch at home when the earth began to shake.

"I'm in a ground-level house and the house was shaking like there's no tomorrow," he told Australian Associated Press.

"It was pretty full-on, there's bound to be some structural damage somewhere."

Indonesia is regularly jolted by earthquakes, caused by massive friction between tectonic plates shifting deep below the archipelago.

Another large earthquake, said to be measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale, was recorded off the coast of Vanuatu Wednesday, Australian scientific authorities said.

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