U.S. Seeks To Improve Image In Muslim Indonesia

During her stay, Clinton held Indonesia up as a model, saying it showed that Islam and modernity can co-exist.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made small talk on a popular music TV show and toured U.S.-funded aid projects on Thursday as she tried to improve America's image in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Wrapping up a 24-hour visit to the Southeast Asian country, Clinton spoke about everything from how she came to serve under U.S. President Barack Obama despite the pain of losing out to him to her tastes in music.

She also took time out to walk the narrow streets of Petojo Utara, a modest neighbourhood in central Jakarta with open sewers where she visited small-scale water purification, recycling, composting, and mother and baby health projects.

Appearing earlier on "Dahsyat" ("Awesome"), a music and chat show aimed at young people, Clinton said she was utterly surprised when Obama asked her to be secretary of state after her "painful" defeat to him in the Democratic presidential primary.

With music throbbing in the background, Clinton got a cheer when she said the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were among her favourite musicians but she politely declined an offer to sing herself.

"Here is the problem," she said, gesturing to the audience. "See all of these people? If I start to sing, they will leave."

After meeting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Clinton told local journalists the United States had neglected Southeast Asia and that her decision to visit Indonesia on her first trip abroad in her new job aimed to redress that.

"We don't want to be absent," she said. "We want to be present."

She also fielded questions about the anger of Indonesians at U.S. policy in the Middle East, saying Obama had decided to push hard for Israeli-Palestinian peace despite the challenges of ending the six-decade conflict.

"We are going to work very hard to try to resolve what has been such a painful, difficult conflict for so many years ... so that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace ... instead of feeling so besieged," she said. "We have got to try to find a breakthrough."

A MODEL

During her stay, Clinton held Indonesia up as a model, saying it showed that Islam and modernity can co-exist.

While most Indonesian Muslims are moderate, the country has a radical fringe and has suffered from sporadic bombings in recent years. More than 200 people, many of them foreigners, were killed when Islamist militants bombed tourist areas on Bali in 2002.

Indonesia embraced democracy and embarked on a range of reforms after former President Suharto was forced to resign in 1998, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy heads for parliamentary and presidential elections in 2009, when Yudhoyono's main challenger is expected to be former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Clinton said it was important to be able to put aside political differences once an election is over, saying that she found it easy to work with Obama because they share many views. However, she acknowledged that it was tough to lose.

"Politics is hard," she said, adding with a laugh. "You have to have a high threshold for pain."