Jakarta – Indonesia will increase its defense budget by 20% next year to compensate for years of low spending, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday.

Speaking two days after apparently winning reelection for a second five-year term, Yudhoyono said new defense spending was possible thanks to economic growth forecast at around 6% next year.

"Starting in 2010, we'll significantly increase our defense budget from IDR33.6 trillion ($3.3 billion) in 2009 into IDR40.6 trillion by adding about IDR7 trillion, or 20%," he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

"We'll increase that each year... so we can be closer to the needed minimum force" with a budget of IDR100-IDR120 trillion.

At IDR33.6 trillion, the defense budget is just 0.67% of Indonesia's total budget.

Years of low defense spending in the mainly Muslim country of 234 million people have been blamed for equipment shortfalls and fatal accidents involving military aircraft.

A military helicopter crash in June killed two personnel while a Hercules transport aircraft crash in May killed more than 100 people. Another 24 military personnel were killed in April when their training aircraft crashed into a hangar at an airbase in West Java.