JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's disaster agency says earthquakes that killed more than 500 people on the island of Lombok in the past month and caused half a billion dollars in damage don't rise to the level of a national emergency.

The agency's response to critics, released Monday evening, strikes a nationalistic tone, noting that declaring a national disaster opens the "door as wide as possible" to international assistance that can cause new problems.

But it also says Indonesia has substantial experience in handling natural calamities and hasn't declared a national disaster since the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 100,000 people in Aceh province.

It said the tsunami was declared a national disaster because all levels of government in the province were devastated and overwhelmed.