Jakarta: Indonesia greeted Iran's outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a 21-gun salute on Wednesday as he began meetings overshadowed by the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear policies.
Iran is under pressure to rein in a nuclear programme which it says is for peaceful purposes but some countries fear is really aimed at developing weapons.
The US has pushed for international action on the issue, and with a group of nations including China and Russia has authorised Britain, France and Germany to work on a package of carrots and sticks to entice Iran to change its programme.
US President George W Bush received an 18-page letter from Ahmadinejad on Monday, the first publicly announced personal communication from an Iranian president to his US counterpart since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Washington has shrugged it off as a move to divert attention from the nuclear issue, but analysts say it might buy Tehran more time to pursue its programme and improve its standing as a regional leader.
Ahmadinejad's visit "will be the first opportunity for us to hear directly about Iran's response to the solutions that have been proposed" on the nuclear issue, Media Indonesia newspaper reported Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda as saying on Tuesday.
That includes the letter to Bush, he said.
"We support the development of nuclear programmes for peaceful purposes. This is the sovereign right of every nation. But we have been consistently against the proliferation of nuclear weapons," Wirajuda added.
The prime purpose of Ahmadinejad's visit is not the nuclear issue but development of economic ties.
Iran is in the process of investing several billion dollars in the oil and gas sector of fellow Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member Indonesia and both countries are eager to boost trade.
Given that, and with Indonesia's government walking a tightrope between friendship with the West and a political need not to offend the country's overwhelming Muslim majority, Jakarta is unlikely to push Ahmadinejad very hard on the nuclear issue.
Ahead of discussions on Wednesday morning with his counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Ahmadinejad received a 21-gun salute and reviewed a military honour guard clad in Indonesia's red-and-white national colours.
The two leaders stood side-by-side on a reviewing stand in the spacious grounds of Indonesia's presidential palace as their national anthems were played. Both wore dark suits but, in his country's style, the bearded Iranian was tie less.
Later on Wednesday, he was due to meet the country's vice president, and in the evening will be hosted by Yudhoyono at a state dinner.
His Jakarta itinerary on Thursday and Friday includes meetings with parliamentarians, business executives and Muslim leaders.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. An estimated 85 per cent of its 220 million people are Muslims.
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