Jakarta – The United States prevented Indonesia's presidential airplane carrying President Abdurrahman Wahid and his entourage from making a refueling stop in the country, forcing the plane to make a stop-over in Canada, the Indonesian Observer reported yesterday.

"There was this prohibition ... by the US government, but everything is OK. The President moves on with his trip," Communication Minister Agum Gumelar was quoted as saying by Antara news agency on Friday.

According to the Observer, an official from Garuda Indonesia said the aircraft went on to Vancouver for the refueling stop. "When the plane was told not to land, the pilots contacted the nearest airports. It finally managed to refuel in Vancouver. It is back to normal now," Garuda spokesman Pudjobroto said.

"Better still, the President can save some time by making the stop in Canada because it is closer to Japan," he added. The newspaper did not say at which airport the plane was prevented from landing.

A day earlier, Mr Abdurrahman, better known as Gus Dur, said on the sidelines of the G-77 Summit in Havana that Washington had tried to prevent him from visiting Cuba.

The Observer quoted him as saying that senior US State Department official Tom Pickering had asked him not to visit five non-US allies: Cuba, Libya, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. But he added: "We are not a lackey of US. We are free to go anywhere. If we didn't go to Cuba, it would be clear that we are colonised by the US."