Cartoon war curdles Jakarta's view of Canberra

CANBERRA - A cartoon war has soured relations between Australia and Indonesia and undermined diplomatic efforts by Canberra to contain the damage caused by the granting of temporary visas to Papuans seeking political asylum.

Incensed by an Australian cartoon depicting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a dog having sex with a Papuan and public claims of atrocities by the Papuan asylum-seekers in Melbourne, Jakarta will review all its relations with Canberra.

Mr Yudhoyono described as "obscene and destructive" a cartoon in the Weekend Australian depicting him as a dog mounting a Papuan, drawn in retaliation for an earlier Indonesian cartoon in the tabloid Rakyat Merdeka of Prime Minister John Howard mating with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and declaring: "I want Papua, Alex" - reflecting Indonesian fears that Australia is trying to engineer Papuan independence in a repeat of East Timor's separation.

The President's review of relations includes co-operation in such critical areas as terrorism and people smuggling, both areas that helped thaw relations after the violence of East Timor's independence.

Yesterday Indonesia also announced it would not send an observer to a Proliferation Security Initiative exercise off the Northern Territory, in which Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Britain and Japan will take part.

Although Jakarta has played down the significance of withdrawing from the exercise, designed to test procedures to intercept illicit shipments of weapons of mass destruction, Australian analysts said the decision was intended to signal Indonesia's anger.

Mr Howard, who intends talking directly to Mr Yudhoyono in a bid to cool tempers, has conceded the strain the visa decision had placed on a relationship Canberra regards as one of the most critical in the region.

He said Australia and Indonesia had a lot at stake in their common partnership and that Australia had demonstrated it was a true and good friend in times of adversity.

"I have no doubt that we will eventually - well, not eventually - but I think we will sail through fairly effectively and with relative speed the current difficulty we have," Mr Howard said.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock also said he believed Jakarta would continue to work with Australia in the key areas of people-smuggling and terrorism, especially as Indonesia had suffered far more from terror on their own soil.

"It's in their best interest and it's in ours," he said.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will also push Australia's case when he visits his country's former colony, following talks with Mr Howard in Canberra. He told reporters he would raise the issue when he met Mr Yudhoyono in Jakarta.

The Indonesian news agency Antara reported similar moves from Indonesia, where six MPs intend visiting Canberra to discuss the Papuan visas with Australian counterparts. They also hope to meet the asylum seekers.

In Jakarta, anger continues to mount over the 43 Papuans, who were granted visas under immigration law after arriving in an outrigger canoe claiming persecution and danger of death in their homeland.

Their landing followed renewed violence near the huge Freemont gold mine in which three Indonesian policemen and an intelligence officer were killed, and 16 students were allegedly murdered in retaliation.

Mr Yudhoyono, incensed that personal assurances of their safety did not result in the Papuans being sent home, said relations with Australia, including terrorism and people-smuggling, would be reviewed.