Jakarta  - Separatist rebels on Tuesday shot and killed two motorcycle taxi drivers in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, police said.

The men were attacked while they were carrying two passengers in Puncak Jaya district, an area where rebels of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) have been active, said Papua police chief Bagus Eko Danto.

The passengers were injured in the shooting, which was the first fatal attack carried out by the rebel group this year, the police chief said.

"It was clearly the work of the OPM because it involved guns," he said.

The rebel group could not be reached for comment.

In January, suspected rebels armed with weapons such as sickles arrows raided a police post and stabbed the wife of an officer before making off with four guns and ammunition.

Police have arrested one person for that attack, Bagus said.

The OPM, comprising a small group of separatist rebels, have been fighting a sporadic rebellion in Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, since the early 1960s.

Papua, a predominantly ethnic Melanesian province 3,700 kilometres north-east of Jakarta, is a former Dutch colony that became an Indonesian province in 1964. (dpa)