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Wahid announces date for Australia visit

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February 11, 2001 

SYDNEY-- (AP) - Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Saturday he will visit Australia for the first time despite strong opposition to the trip. Wahid said he would visit in the first week of April.

"There are oppositions to the visit from the narrow-minded nationalists that wouldn't like to see me go to Australia," President Wahid told Australia's Channel Nine News.

"But you should know that that thing was reciprocated by narrow-minded people in Australia as well."

A visit by Wahid to Australia has been on the cards for months but no firm date has ever been set because of opposition to the move within Indonesia.

The powerful neighbors are still patching up their relationship that was badly dented in 1999 by Australia's strong criticism of Jakarta's role in violence in East Timor and Canberra's leadership of an international troop force sent to quell the fighting.

Wahid is expected to stop in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin as well as visiting New Zealand.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Canberra had had no official confirmation of Wahid's visit.

"The invitation has been out for some time," said Downer's spokesman, Matt Francis. "We would always welcome him."

Wahid traveled Friday to his political stronghold of East Java and told supporters to stop violent protests in his defense because he was confident efforts to impeach him would fail.

The frail Muslim cleric, Indonesia's first democratically elected leader in more than 40 years, has been under sustained political fire since Parliament last week censured him over alleged corruption. He denies any wrongdoing.