JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia announced Wednesday it would investigate the wealth of former president Suharto as protests and rioting spread throughout the increasingly impoverished country of 200 million people.

"The government has set up a team to probe Suharto's personal wealth and the wealth of those linked to him,'' Attorney General Muhammad Ghalib told reporters.

The investigation will be headed by Ghalib who last week told reporters that as a former president, Suharto could not have been lying when he denied squirreling away a fortune in overseas banks.

Some estimates say that Suharto and his family amassed up to $30 billion during his 32-year autocratic rule which came to an abrupt end in May amid economic collapse and violent protest.

Suharto has been mostly out of the public eye since his downfall on May 21 but just over a week ago made a rare appearance on a television station -- partly-owned by his daughter -- to deny accusations he had stashed a fortune overseas.

``The people want a clarification of this matter and so does Suharto,'' said Ghalib, chief military prosecutor during former general Suharto's rule.

Austrian newspapers say a $7 billion increase in bank deposits there in the first quarter of 1998 could be partly due to the Suharto family moving wealth out of Indonesia.

Several of his relatives and closest associates have already been questioned by Jakarta police, though no charges have yet been made.

The Suharto family built up huge business empires that have long dominated the Indonesian economy, though Suharto always denied accusations of nepotism and corruption.

However, since his downfall government departments have cancelled several contracts with companies linked to Suharto's family, saying graft had been involved.

``Corruption, collusion, nepotism'' -- known locally by its Indonesian acronym of KKN -- has become the rallying call of an growing number of protests around the country over surging prices of basic commodities.

Rice prices have risen threefold in the past year, putting the staple increasingly out of the reach of ordinary Indonesians as the country's economic crisis throws millions into a life of abject poverty.

Industry officials say that though there is enough rice in the country, a poor infrastructure, speculators and graft have hampered supplies and increased prices.

In the latest violence, a mob of 900 people in the island of Sumatra went on the rampage after a road accident involving an ethnic-Chinese and an indigenous Indonesian.

Police said 400 houses were set on fire in the town of Bagansiapi-api, on the eastern coast of Sumatra some 1,100 km (660 miles) northwest of Jakarta.

Ethnic-Chinese Indonesians, the country's most successful minority group, have been the frequent target of attacks around the country.

In a protest in Jakarta, at least 200 supporters of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputra were stopped by police from marching to parliament.

Last week, students staged a series of protests against President B.J. Habibie, calling for him to step down if he did not solve the problem of inflation.

Indonesia, facing its worst economic crisis for 30 years, has been pledged $47.4 billion in an international package to help it back on what is likely to be a long road to recovery.

The Indonesian rupiah has fallen some 80 percent against the dollar, while inflation is running at around 70 percent.

Most of the country's listed companies are technically bankrupt and analysts said the economic crisis is certain to deteriorate as firms close and millions more lose their jobs.

President B.J. Habibie, barely three months in office and with little obvious public support, has appealed for patience and the military has warned that it will start to get tough with protestors.