Yudhoyono postpones Canberra visit
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The latest earthquake off Sumatra has prompted Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to postpone a planned visit to southern neighbor Australia.
Yudhoyono was due to arrive in the Australian capital, Canberra, on Wednesday for his first official visit there since coming to power in October last year.
One of the key discussion points for the visit was to have been the administration of Australia's Aust. $1 billion ($771 million) aid package to Indonesia in the wake of the devastating December 26 earthquake and tsunamis.
The Indonesian president will instead visit the island of Nias off the Sumatran coast which bore the brunt of Monday's 8.7-magnitude earthquake, which some officials fear may have killed up to 2,000 people.
"On the Australia trip, it has been cancelled. We will have a top-level emergency meeting soon," Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told Reuters news service Tuesday.
"The president will go to Nias in one or two days," presidential spokesman Andy Mallarangeng told Reuters.
It is not known yet when the visit to Australia can be rescheduled.
Australia and Indonesia have had a prickly relations in the past, but ties have improved recently with the ascendancy of Yudhoyono and Canberra's generous response to the tsunami tragedy.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday that Canberra officials were talking to their Indonesian counterparts about any additional aid relief that Australia could provide.
"We're certainly willing to provide assistance as best we can to the Indonesians and we're offering assistance to the Indonesians," Downer said.
Australian troops and relief workers were among the first on the ground in the hard-hit Aceh province following December 26, and only began returning from Indonesia earlier this week.
Downer said there were a lot of Ausaid workers still in Aceh who could provide assistance for the latest disaster at short notice.
A decision on whether they would be needed would be made after the Indonesian government had conducted a fuller assessment of the damage.
