The Indonesian Defense Ministry said Friday that Jakarta had sent a delegation to Washington to negotiate the lifting of ban on US training for Army Special Forces (Kopassus), but stopped short of saying it was part of US-Indonesian comprehensive partnership talks.

Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen Sjafrie Sjamsoedin told news portal detik.com that the delegation consisted of the Kopassus chief and representatives from the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry.

The entire Kopassus unit is banned from receiving US military education or training, following allegations of their involvement in a number of atrocities in restive provinces.

The ban will only be lifted if the government takes adequate legal steps to process officers allegedly involved. "The team will start their work today," Sjafrie said.

"The purpose of their visit is to seek normalization of relations with Washington. We will convince them about the progress we have made in processing rights perpetrators... and that Kopassus has gone through a process of reform."

However, Sjafrie refused to elaborate on how Kopassus would make use of the visit by US President Barack Obama this month to help speed up the normalization in relations.

Assistant US secretary of state Kurt Campbell will be in Jakarta from March 14-15 to prepare the agenda of the Obama visit, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said Friday.