INDONESIAN PRESIDENT REPEATS INVITATION TO OBAMA

Jakarta, Feb 20 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in a meeting with US Secretary of States Hillary Rodham Clinton, has extended once again his invitation to US new president, Barack Obama, to visit Indonesia.

"President Yudhoyono has extended the invitation officially in a phone conversation between him and President Obama in Seatle last December," Presidential Spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said at the Presidential Office here on Thursday.
He said that Yudhoyono once again extended the invitation during his 45-minute meeting with Clinton on Thursday.
Djalal said that Yudhoyono expressed hope that Obama would be able to visit Indonesia in the runup to the holding of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)'s conference in Singapore at the end of 2009.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda after holding a bilateral meeting with Clinton also touched on the Indonesian invitation.
"We have become impatient in waiting (for Obama's visit). I hope Minister Clinton would deliver this matter to Obama," Wirajuda said.
At a dinner with public figures at National Archive building Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton jokingly said that a president needed a long preparation for an overseas' trip because he had a lot of jobs to do.
The US secretary of state Clinton had met with her counterpart Hassan Wirajuda, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan and a number of Indonesian noted figures.***