Australia confident of RI antiterror cooperation

Australia confident of RI antiterror cooperation

Agencies, Canberra

The man expected to be Indonesia's next president will probably be even more cooperative than its current leader in combating terrorism in the region, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- the former security minister who is expected to be declared Indonesia's president once vote- counting for this week's poll is complete -- has a lot of affection for Australia and would do more than President Megawati Soekarnoputri, said Downer.

"We had a good relationship with President Megawati, but I think Bambang Yudhoyono is somebody we can work with exceptionally well. He's somebody I know very well," Downer said in a radio interview.

"Already we've built very successful counterterrorism arrangements with the Indonesians. I think we can still do more with them though," he said.

Canberra and Jakarta have worked closely to fight terror since the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Yudhoyono, a U.S.-trained former general, has led the fight against al-Qaeda-linked extremists in Indonesia, including the Jamaah Islamiyah organization, which has steadily targeted Indonesia in recent years.

The group is blamed for the Bali blasts, and also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta earlier this month that left nine Indonesians dead.

The announcement of official election results is slated for Oct. 5, but could take place sooner if the vote tallying finishes earlier.

An increasingly defensive Prime Minister John Howard will formally launch his government's campaign in Brisbane on Sunday to win the Oct. 9 election, fighting a rejuvenated Labor opposition growing more confident by the day.

With most indicators showing an Australian economy bounding along at its strongest levels for a generation, inflation in check, unemployment at near record lows and a stock market at record highs, Howard's conservative coalition should be all but unbeatable.

But they are trailing in the latest published polling while internal Labor polling also reportedly shows the opposition, under an increasingly popular young leader Mark Latham, has inched forward to its best position since the campaign began a month ago.

For the conservative leader, an eight-year career as prime minister now hinges on Sunday's speech, in which he will unveil new measures, detail his policies and outline his vision for a fourth term amid the fanfare and hoopla of a political convention.

To blow it will very likely mean defeat for the Liberal- National coalition and retirement from politics for Howard at the age of 65.

Its success or otherwise will be measured against Labor's campaign launching on Wednesday, in Brisbane, capital of the eastern state of Queensland in which a string of key marginal seats are crucial for both sides.