Indonesia 'spied on Australians'

John Howard says relations with Indonesia are strong

Indonesia spied on Australia during the crisis in East Timor in 1999, the former head of Indonesia's intelligence has revealed.

Abdullah Hendropriyono told Australian TV that his agents bugged the phones of Australian politicians and diplomats.

He told Channel Nine there had also been unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate Australian intelligence.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard insists relations with Indonesia remain "strong" despite the revelation.

But former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who recently left office, said a "lack of harmony" between the two countries remained.

Mr Hendropriyono said the espionage had now stopped.

But he admitted that Indonesia had tapped politicians' phones and bugged the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Australian 'meddling'

Mr Hendropriyono, who resigned as head of Indonesia's intelligence agency last month, said spying was at its most intense when Australia was leading a peacekeeping force in East Timor, amid the violence that followed the island's vote for independence from Indonesia.

"In the Timor case, [the targets were] military and both civilian as well," he told Channel Nine.

Another former Indonesian President, Abdurrahman Wahid, told the channel that his country resented Australia's expanded security presence in Indonesia, and felt that Canberra "meddles in our affairs".

He implied the bomb attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September, which killed nine people, was a direct result of this resentment.

Mr Howard refused to comment on the bugging claims, but did say: "Our relations with Indonesia remain very strong."

However, he said in his eight years as prime minister he had changed the direction of Australia's foreign policy, which he believed was too concerned with Asia, to increase links with the US and Europe.

"We're not a country that should put all our eggs in one regional basket," he said.