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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will meet Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd next month to talk on wide bilateral relations, including thorny issues, such as Australians on death row and stranded boat people.

A third hot topic may be the decision by Australia to renew investigation of the deaths of five Australia-based journalists in 1975 in East Timor, known as the Balibo Five case, which has also provoked some uneasiness in bilateral relations.

However Jakarta and Canberra both say their relations are fine.

Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said here Thursday that President Yudhoyono, accompanied by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono and Cabinet ministers, would depart on March 8 to Canberra, before leaving for Sydney and then Papua New Guinea on March 11.

The President's entourage will return to Jakarta on March 12.

Dino said during his stay in Canberra, Yudhoyono would have a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues.

"Indonesia and Australia have been experiencing intensive convergence in terms of their national interests, which now also include climate change and terrorism issues, and their participation in global economic reform as mutual members of the G20..." Dino told a press conference at the Presidential Office.

However, news reports also indicate that Australian diplomats in Jakarta have told Indonesian officials that the possible execution of three Australians, members of the Bali Nine group, for drug smuggling in Denpasar, would be very sensitive for Australia's government in an election year.

Australian acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean denied any link between discussing the possible executions and the upcoming election.

Rudd has promised to raise the issue with Yudhoyono when Indonesian court processes are concluded and if the death penalties still stand.

Observers have said that any approach for clemency would be a sensitive issue for both countries, with some Indonesian lawmakers and local media likely to see any such approach as interference in RI affairs.

Indonesia has also come under media scrutiny over its recent decision to detain 78 Sri Lankan boat people originally picked up by an Australian vessel in international waters on their way to Australia.