The embassy, with 46 staff inside, was locked down for 12 hours from Wednesday morning after the suspicious envelope containing white powder was found.

Prime Minister John Howard said the powder had been identified as part of the bacillus bacterial family, which ranges from anthrax to relatively harmless germs.

He said Australia's first "biological attack" appeared to be a reprisal for a 20-year jail term handed down by an Indonesian court last week against a young Australian woman, Schapelle Corby.

The verdict and sentence sparked public outrage in Australia, where most people believe Corby, 27, was innocent and that her case had been mishandled by the Indonesian courts.

The 46 embassy staff underwent decontamination showers before being allowed to return home late Wednesday night.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who initially said only 22 embassy personnel were affected, said Thursday it could take up to another two days to identify the bacteria.

"We don't know in detail whether it's toxic or not because the work that has to be done now by the scientists to establish precisely what it is will take some time," Downer told Nine Network television news.

"It could be up to two days before they're absolutely certain whether it's toxic or whether it's not."

Downer said the package containing the biological agent was sent from the Australian state of Victoria and contained a note written in Indonesian, but its translation was not yet available.

"Obviously that (translation) will come to us fairly soon," Downer said.

The Australian newspaper said the note was a "race hate message" and an "anti-Indonesian rant".

Angry supporters of Corby are being blamed for the incident, which Howard and Downer both said would harm not only Corby's chances to appeal her conviction but also Australia's complex relations with Indonesia.

Howard's government has sought strenuously to improve ties with Jakarta which were battered when Australia supported East Timor's drive for independence from Indonesia in the late 1990s.

The two governments have notably cooperated closely in anti-terrorism efforts following a 2002 suicide bombing by Islamic militants on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian.

Australia then led international aid efforts for Indonesia after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster that left more than 128,000 Indonesians dead or missing.

Downer said he had spoken to Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda about the attack, which Jakarta has strongly condemned.

"I made it very clear to the Indonesian foreign minister, and he was with the president (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) when I was speaking to him, the Australian government and the authorities here in Canberra will do everything possible to track down who is responsible for this, but that we're outraged by the incident," he said.

"In a broader sense there's no doubt that it does Australia damage with the Indonesian community."

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