Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Thursday President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed him to submit the extradition treaty with Singapore to the House of Representatives (DPR) for ratification.

"Just now I reported the conclusion of the extradition treaty to the President and he asked me to submit it to the DPR as soon as possible," the minister was quoted by the national Antara News Agency as saying.

"The explanations and document must first be translated into the Indonesian language. However, the House is still in recess, so now there is no forum to discuss the treaty," he added.

Hassan said the president would highly appreciate the House leadership's suggestions for the treaty's speedy ratification.

According to him, the president also hoped the ratification process could be carried out immediately.

On various circles' worries that corrupters would flee to other countries from Singapore, Hassan said Indonesia had cooperation agreements on tracing and recovery of stolen state funds with a number of other countries.

The minister said on Tuesday the extradition treaty with Singapore would help bring to justice officials and business figures accused of corruption during former dictator Suharto's regime from 1967 to 1998.

"The treaty is retroactive so it can also be used to bring home corrupters from the Suharto era," he said.

Hassan declined to disclose the names of the suspects on the government's hit list. But he said the treaty, negotiations for which started in 2005, would cover 42 types of crime.

The extradition treaty comes amid strained relations between Indonesia and Singapore over Jakarta's ban on export of land sand used to make concrete, a move that is hurting Singapore's booming construction industry.

Source: Xinhua