TENGGULUN (Indonesia) - THE families of the Indonesian Islamists on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people have been told to 'get ready' for the executions, officials said on Friday.

In the latest indication that the men will soon face firing squads, prosecutors and police visited the family of brothers Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, in this east Java village and warned them to prepare for bad news.

'We were just here to tell the family to get ready for when the executions take place,' chief district prosecutor Irnensis said after speaking to the family for about 30 minutes.

Samudra's family in the west Java town of Serang received a visit from prosecutors late on Thursday, a brother said.

Indonesian officials have said only that the executions will take place in 'early November'.

The bombers were sentenced in 2003 for the attack on packed nightspots that killed mostly foreign tourists, including 88 Australians, in what they said was revenge for US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Their executions have been delayed by a string of failed appeals and religious considerations. Several previous official deadlines for the executions have come and gone without any action.

Family member Ali Fauzi said the family was ready.

'The prosecutor told us to get ready and prepare ourselves in case the execution takes place,' he said near the bombers' home in the small coastal village of Tenggulun, which has been overrun with journalists.

'And they told us not to wait for a letter informing us of the executions because the Bali court has no obligation to send one. We told the prosecutor we're ready, there's no problem.'

Samudra's brother Khairul Anwar said his family was 'trying to relax in anticipation'.

Indonesia usually executes convicts by firing squad in undisclosed locations in the middle of the night. The prisoners are told at least three days in advance.

Helicopters have been prepared to take the convicts' bodies from the high-security prison on Nusakambangan island off southern Java to their villages.

Authorities are afraid that an overland journey will turn into a funeral procession for jihadist radicals bent on 'holy war' with the West.

Security has been strengthened across the mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people amid fears of a backlash from the tiny minority of fanatics who support the bombers.

Police manned roadblocks near Amrozi's village, where handfuls of radical sympathisers have gathered to shout calls for jihad or holy war for the past four days, much to the bemusement of locals.

'We're guarding the roads leading to Amrozi's village to see who's entering. We understand that many people are heading there and we want to make sure nothing bad happens like clashes,' local police officer Sunaryo Putro said.

Police are also investigating bomb threats received this week against the US and Australian embassies, and an Internet letter purportedly penned by the bombers threatening the life of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The bombers have warned of retribution in a string of media appearances they have been allowed to conduct from prison but their lawyers deny they wrote the letter threatening the president.

The condemned men have also said they are eager to die as 'martyrs'. -- AFP