Indian president in Indonesia despite Mumbai attacks

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) – Indian President Pratibha Patil arrived in Indonesia for a six-day visit Friday, going ahead with a Southeast Asian trip despite deadly militant attacks in Mumbai.

Patil will spend the weekend on the holiday island of Bali before meeting his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Monday, a spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry said.

The visit by the Indian president, who holds a largely ceremonial office, is a follow-up to a 2005 state visit by Yudhoyono to India in 2005, spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.

"A number of agreements are set to be made on youth development, sport and agriculture," he said.

A spokesman for the Indian embassy in Jakarta, Sugandra Jaram, earlier said he was unaware of any plan to abandon Patil's trip in light of militant attacks on the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai, which killed at least 130 people.

Patil on Thursday strongly condemned the Mumbai attacks while on a visit to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

"This violent attack was the work of those who have no regard for human life," she said.

Source : news.yahoo.com