Japan foreign minister to visit Indonesia

Japan foreign minister to visit Indonesia

TOKYO (DPA): Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said on Tuesday he will visit Indonesia as part of his three-nation five- day trip starting on Friday.

The overseas visit will also take Kono to Singapore and the former Indonesian province East Timor.

During his Indonesian trip, Kono plans to hold a discussion with President Abdurrahman Wahid, who visited Japan earlier this month.

Abdurrahman and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong will be the Southeast Asian leaders Kono will meet with prior to the July 21-23 Group of Eight annual summit in Okinawa Prefecture.

Kono will be Japan's first cabinet minister to visit East Timor, which sought independence in a landmark referendum in August of last year and was approved by Jakarta in October.

"I want them to give me their views on the ways in which aid from Japan could be used effectively," Kono told a Tokyo press conference.

Kono is scheduled to hold talks with independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, and Sergio Viera de Mello, the special representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and head of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor.