President Suharto of Indonesia has reiterated his commitment to the economic reform programme agreed with the IMF. The Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Stanley Fischer, said it had been a very good meeting and the IMF mission would be negotiating over the coming days on detailed plans as to how to strengthen and proceed with the reform measures. South East Asia correspondent, Simon Ingram, reports from Jakarta:

Stanley Fischer emerged from his meeting with President Suharto indicating he had been much encouraged by what he had heard. He said the Indonesian leader had been very clear in his determination to stay with the economic reform programme agreed with the IMF last October, and indeed to strengthen and accelerate it.

This was a very good meeting, he added - a remark clearly aimed at reassuring nervous currency and stock markets who had been highly sceptical about the readiness of the Indonesian authorities to accept the political risks involved in far-reaching reform. Local stocks responded positively to Mr Fischer's upbeat assessment, with the main index moving up about 2%.

The Indonesian rupiah, which had moved downwards against the dollar when trading opened, also strengthened initially but remains vulnerable to negative regional sentiment. Mr Fischer acknowledged that much detailed work still had to be done over the coming days on precisely how the reform package can be moved forward.