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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday asked the Malaysian government to deal more carefully with "sensitive" cultural issues between their two countries.

The request came after the recent news of the Balinese Pendet dance appearing in a Malaysian tourism advertising campaign. These advertisements had offended the Indonesian public, Yudhoyono said.

Nor was not the first time Malaysia had claimed an Indonesian cultural product as its own, he said, adding that the Malaysian government should not ignore this issue.

Indonesia and Malaysia had made progress in their partnership on labor issues, and therefore should be able to develop good partnership in the cultural sector, he said.

"I hope the Malaysian government can pay more attention to issues related to culture and the intellectual property rights of Indonesians. Don't let this matter disrupt relations between the two countries.

"Indonesia hasn't overreacted with its protest. This has now happened several times," Yudhoyono said after a Cabinet meeting to discuss a number of issues regarding Indonesia-Malaysia relations.

Through the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the government sent a letter of protest to Malaysia concerning the advertisements, Yudhoyono said. So far, Malaysia's response had been that the controversial advertisements presenting the Pendet dance were made by a Malaysian production house, he said.

The Malaysian government had also admitted a lack of monitoring of the production house and promised to reprimand it, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said as quoted by Antara.

Yudhoyono used the incident to remind Indonesians to protect their work by more actively registering their patents and intellectual rights.

"This is a very good lesson. We are now living in an era of globalization, which concerns ones' intellectual property rights. We must not be left behind: Indonesians must immediately register their patent rights."