JAKNEWS.COM---Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Australia on Tuesday (9/3) for a three-day visit during which he will be given the rare honour of addressing the country's parliament.

Yudhoyono, who will also speak to business leaders in Sydney, was greeted by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce as he flew into Canberra with his wife, Ani.

On Wednesday, Yudhoyono will become the first Indonesian president to address a joint sitting of the Australian parliament, underlining efforts to improve ties between the neighbouring countries.

"Because we are such close neighbours there will always be issues," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Sky News.

"But the strength of the relationship these days is that we can have issues which may well be difficult, whether it's issues of capital punishment, people smuggling or the Balibo Five for example.

"But they don't disturb the strength of the relationship."

Traditionally bumpy relations were last tested in October during a stand-off over a boat-load of asylum-seekers picked up by Australian authorities and taken to an Indonesian port.

In September, Australia opened a war-crimes investigation into the shooting of the "Balibo Five" journalists who were killed by Indonesian troops in East Timor in 1975.

The countries -- a sprawling Muslim-majority archipelago of 230 million, and a continent-sized island of 22 million -- have also been at odds over the "Bali Nine" Australian drug-smugglers, three of whom have been sentenced to death.

Yudhoyono, who will hold talks with Rudd on Wednesday, is also likely to discuss the fight against extremism after three Australians died in July's bomb attacks on two luxury Jakarta hotels.

Australia earlier lost 88 nationals in the 2002 Bali bombings, while nine people were killed in a car-bombing at its embassy in Jakarta in 2004.
 

nYAHOO/JAK01