Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong and visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid held talks on November 9 and they agreed to boost bilateral cooperation.

Wahid, who is on a tour of fellow ASEAN countries, arrived here for a one-day unofficial visit to Vietnam.

At the talks, Luong reaffirmed Vietnam's consistent policy of attaching importance to the traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Indonesia, conducted either bilaterally, within the framework of ASEAN or multilaterally.

Wahid informed Luong about his new government's resolve to restore national stability, recover the economy, improve people's living conditions and achieve national reconciliation, as well as its efforts and policies to promote ties with other countries with priority given to other ASEAN member countries.

In an effort to accelerate and deepen bilateral cooperative ties toward the new millennium, the two sides agreed to adopt swift measures to increase the exchange of visits by high-level delegations and boost economic, trade, and investment cooperation, particularly in agriculture where both sides possess great potentials.

After the talks, Wahid also met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

During the meeting, the two sides agreed to hold a meeting of the Vietnam-Indonesia Commission for Economic and Trade Cooperation at "a suitable date."

Khai expressed Vietnam's willingness to secure sales of farm produce, especially rice, to Indonesia in exchange for Indonesia's exports such as fertilizer.

On the regional situation, the two leaders expressed their determination to further strengthen cooperation and coordinate efforts among ASEAN member countries to consolidate peace for development in their individual countries as well as in the region.

Later in the afternoon, Wahid left Vietnam for the Philippines.