Hassan Wirayuda to visit RP

MANILA: Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda is to visit the Philippines later this month to boost cooperation against terrorism and bilateral ties, a senior diplomat said on Tuesday.

The two days visit on Dec.20, Wirayuda slated to meet his counterpart Blas Ople and National Security Adviser Roilo Golez before calling on President Gloria Arroyo, said the official, who did not want to be named.

Expected to be taken up during the Ople-Hassan meeting is Manila's proposal to host a multilateral conference on terrorism and transnational crime. The date of the talks has not been fixed.

Ople is also expected to take up with Hassan a bid by the Philippines to gain observer status in the powerful Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Hassan is the chairman of the OIC's so-called "committee of eight," which is monitoring the implementation of a 1996 peace agreement between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by Muslim firebrand Nur Misuari.

Misuari was made a governor of the Muslim autonomous region, but was eased out of power last year, provoking him to start a rebellion, which more than 100 people were killed.

He fled to Malaysia where he was arrested and is now in jail here on rebellion charges.--AFP