George Roberts – Prime Minister Julia Gillard is claiming a first in regional diplomacy, after securing a joint meeting with the leaders of Indonesia and East Timor.

It is the first time the three countries' leaders have met together and comes just over a decade after Australia played a key role in East Timor gaining independence from Indonesia.

Indonesia occupied East Timor for more than 20 years and the two countries have had an at-times violent and bloody shared history.

Ms Gillard said her meeting with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and East Timor's prime minister Xanana Gusmao focused on the countries cooperating on infrastructure.

She says the discussions with Mr Yudhoyono and Mr Gusmao were primarily about cooperation on what she called "connectivity".

"That's a focus on infrastructure, it's a focus on transport, it's a focus on communications, it's a focus on capacity building," she said.

The Prime Minister says the three countries are arranging a special meeting of technical experts in the East Timorese capital Dili next year.

On the last day of the Bali Democracy Forum, which Ms Gillard co-chaired, she also held a separate meeting with the Indonesian president. The Prime Minister says the pair discussed a range of issues including economic opportunities and people smuggling but that no additional measures were discussed in preventing asylum seekers getting on dangerous boats.

"We talked about our continuing cooperation, that's right," she said. "We are intensively engaged with Indonesia, every day on combating people smuggling."