Australian advisory on Bali retained

Australian advisory on Bali retained

AUSTRALIA: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday that he had rebuffed an Indonesia request that he ease a government warning against travel to the resort island of Bali.

Nearly five months after 89 Australians and some 120 other people were killed by a double bombing of two Bali nightclubs, Downer said it was too early to withdraw the foreign ministry advisory urging Australians to avoid the island.

Indonesia's tourism minister met Downer last month and urged him to drop the warnings, because they were harming Indonesia's economy.

Indonesian police have arrested several suspects in the bombing, believed carried out by members of Jamaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. --AFP