Wahid in UAE as Kalimantan burns

The Indonesian president, Abdurrahman Wahid, has been meeting senior government officials in the United Arab Emirates, the latest stop on his tour of the Middle East and Africa. The Emirates news agency said Mr Wahid met his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan for talks on developments in the Islamic world and bilateral co-operation. During his visit Mr Wahid appealed for calm in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan,where more than two hundred people are reported to have died in the past week of ethnic violence.

Correspondents say that Mr Wahid has been criticised by Indonesian legislators for his frequent overseas visits and for seeming to care little about the bloodshed in Kalimantan.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service