JAKARTA, Jan 15 - Indonesian military rescued 18 workers at gold and copper miner Freeport Indonesia that had been surrounded by armed rebels for three days at a company outpost in the insurgency-plagued Papua region, officials said on Thursday.

The rebel group - the Free Papua Movement- says it is fighting for secession of the region from Indonesia, which has controlled half of the resource-rich island since 1969 after decades of Dutch control. The other half of the massive Pacific island - one of the largest in the world - is the independent state of Papua New Guinea, north of Australia.