After a week of widespread protests by students against a rise in fuel prices, the Indonesian government has announced that it will give cash payments to needy university students to help offset the impact of transportation and living-cost increases.

Bambang Sudiby, the education minister, announced on Friday that 400,000 students, about 10 percent of the total number enrolled in the country, would each receive a $54 cash payment starting next semester. The government said it wanted to double the payment next year. The minister did not say how the government would determine who would receive the payment.

More than 100 students at National University, in Jakarta, were arrested last week after the government announced it would limit fuel subsidies, a move that sent prices at the pump up 30 percent. Students have been staging demonstrations across the country, and many have turned violent.

The last time students took to the streets to protest fuel prices was in 1989. The government is all too aware that student protests helped bring down the military government of President Suharto. —Martha Ann Overland