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Australia's Keating

to visit Indonesia

CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said he will travel to Indonesia next month for talks with President Suharto ahead of November's APEC summit. It will be Keating's fifth visit to the northern neighbour since becoming prime minister in 1991.

Keating, who said no country was more important to Australia than Indonesia, is scheduled to meet Suharto on September 17, after arriving in Indonesia from Papua New Guinea.

"I will meet President Suharto to discuss the APEC meeting in Osaka in November as well as bilateral and regional issues," Keating said in a statement. The two leaders are expected to meet on the resort island of Bali, although that has not yet been confirmed, a spokesman said.

Suharto has not visited Australia since 1975, months before Indonesian troops invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.

Leaders of the 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group are due to hold their third summit in the Japanese city of Osaka in November to discuss trade liberalisation. APEC groups Australia, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.-Reuter