WASHINGTON YET TO ISSUE SCHEDULE OF OBAMA'S INDONESIA VISIT

Jakarta, July 24 (ANTARA) - The United States government has yet to issue an official schedule for President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia, an Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said.

"According to a statement from the White House, President Obama will visit Indonesia but his official schedule for the trip has yet to be issued," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said in a press briefing here on Friday.

He said the US government would probably announce the schedule of Obama's visit in the next few weeks.

"We hope the US government will soon announce President Obama's visit to Indonesia," Faizasyah said, adding that the US president's plan to visit Indonesia had been reported by various media but the official schedule had yet to be issued by Washington.

He said Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda met with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton in Phuket, Tailand, in the run up to an ASEAN Summit but it was unclear whether or not they discussed Obama's planned visit to Indonesia.

According to Faizasyah, Wirayudha and Hillary in the meeting discussed the follow up of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was quoted by AFP as saying that Obama still wanted to visit his old hometown of Jakarta perhaps later this year, despite the twin blasts at two luxury hotels in the city.

"I have no reason to believe that the events of the past few days have changed or lessened the president's desire" to visit Indonesia," Gibbs said.

Obama spent a few years as a child living in Jakarta from 1967 to 1971 after his mother got remarried to an Indonesian national.

Gibbs said the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to be held in Singapore in November could provide an opportunity for Obama for a stopover in Indonesia.