Megawati woos Australia

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has been invited to Indonesia by the new president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He said the invitation was made during a telephone call he made to President Megawati on Thursday, during which strained relations over East Timor were discussed.

Mr Howard said he hoped to take up the offer before the end of the year.

"She was very keen to have a face to face meeting as soon as possible and I'm going to see if that can't be done," Mr Howard said.

"We both agreed that there had been difficulties between our two governments over East Timor but we worked through that."

The ousted president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, visited Australia last month for formal talks, which included the East Timor situation. It was the first visit to Australia by an Indonesian head of state for 26 years.

Australia spearheaded the international peacekeeping force which intervened in East Timor during the massacres which followed the territory's vote for independence two years ago.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service