JAKARTA3 - Indonesia's PT Bank Century Tbk, which the government took over last week, was hit by liquidity problems related to about US$56 million of payments on bonds maturing in the last few months, officials said on Sunday.

The bank, a relatively small lender with total assets of 15 trillion rupiah , is due to resume operations on Monday after authorities took it over on Friday in the first such takeover since the Asian crisis in the late 1990s.

The new head of the bank urged customers of the bank not to make panic withdrawals when it reopened.

Maryono, who goes by one name like many Indonesians and is also an executive at state lender PT Bank Mandiri Tbk, said the country's deposit insurance agency would inject necessary funding to ensure the safety and quality of service.

"The trouble at Bank Century was mostly related to its holdings of debt securities denominated in foreign currency," Siti Fadjrijah, a deputy central bank governor, told a separate news conference on Sunday.

The bank had failed to receive funds from around US$56 million worth of bonds maturing in late October and early November, which was a major cause behind liquidity problems, central bank officials said, declining to elaborate on the issuers of the debt.

Officials declined to give a figure for the bail-out, but said the capital adequacy ratio at Bank Century was at minus 2 per cent, far below the required minimum level of 8 per cent.

The central bank said on Nov. 14 that Bank Century was having technical problems settling interbank payments, but an official at the deposit insurance agency said on Friday there had been a deterioration in its assets.

As in many nations, the interbank market in Southeast Asia's top economy has been hit by a liquidity squeeze in recent months.

In a bid to prevent further problems, the central bank has been tightening monitoring at banks on a daily basis, said Muliaman Hadad, another deputy central bank governor.

Most analysts do not see widespread problems in Indonesia's banking system, which underwent a multi-billion dollar bail-out after the Asian financial crisis a decade ago.

But the problems at Bank Century come as the rupiah currency slumped to its weakest level against the dollar since August, 1998, on Friday.

Indonesia recently moved to guarantee up to 2 billion rupiah in bank deposits, up from 100 million rupiah previously, although there have been some calls for it to follow other countries in the region and guarantee all deposits.

The deposit insurance agency would have three years to turn around Bank Century, but that could be extended for another two years before selling a stake to investors, said Noor Cahyo, director of claims and bank resolution at the agency.

Following the take over, the agency now controls 100 percent stake in the bank. Previously, Deutsche Boerse controlled 11.3 percent of Bank Century, while First Asia Holdings held 9.6 percent, Reuters data showed.

Before being taken over, Bank Century had said that local conglomerate Sinar Mas Group planned to acquire an up to 70 percent stake in the bank.

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