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.