Indonesia's president welcomed Wednesday the possibility of debt relief to help cope with the tsunami disaster that killed at least 94,200 in this southeast Asian nation, the most of any country. "Of course because of the huge costs of rehabilitation and reconstruction, the Indonesian government welcomes the initiative," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters while touring the venue for an international tsunami aid summit scheduled Thursday in Jakarta. Britain's top treasury official, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, has said that a possible debt freeze would be discussed by the Paris Club of creditor nations next week and at a February meeting between finance ministers of the Group of 7 industrial nations in London. Yudhoyono said Indonesia at least hoped for a rescheduling of its debt, which he said amounted to some US$3 billion (¤2.3 billion). Indonesia has already received commitments of some US$800 million (¤600 million) in relief from international donors to help survivors in the tsunami-hit province of Aceh, Minister of National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Wednesday.
