Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Wednesday denied that a new security treaty agreed with Indonesia is about the issues of asylum seekers or nuclear energy programs as reported.

Australian newspapers reported Wednesday morning that Australia and Indonesia have agreed to a new broad-ranging security treaty under the terms of which Jakarta and Canberra have pledged not to support separatist causes in each other's country.

This was a key demand made by Jakarta in the wake of tensions between the two countries generated by Australia's granting of temporary protection visas to 43 asylum-seekers earlier this year from Indonesia's Papua province, where separatist movement has been active.

"The treaty is intended to draw together the threads of the security relationship with Indonesia so that Australia and Indonesia, working together, can enhance our security in a modern context," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio Wednesday.

"It's nothing to do with asylum seekers in that sense. It's to do with not obviously supporting activities which are going to be, in one way or another, a threat to each other's countries," he said.

Downer said asylum seekers would be dealt with according to Australian law.

He also denied the treaty will encourage the export of uranium to Indonesia.

"Well, if we were to sell uranium to Indonesia, we would negotiate a nuclear safeguards agreement," he said.

The newspaper reports also said the pact will reaffirm earlier commitments Australia has made to strengthen cooperation with Indonesia in the areas of law enforcement and counter-terrorism.

Downer and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda will sign the new pact on the Indonesian island of Lombok on Monday after nearly two years of discussions and negotiations, according to the reports.

The new pact was reached seven years after Jakarta tore up a previous agreement secretly negotiated by leaders of the two countries.

Source: Xinhua