Auckland – Australia does not want Indonesia to break up and is strongly opposed to its various separatist movements, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said here Saturday.

Downer and his New Zealand counterpart Phil Goff completed a day of talks here which included discussions on the worsening situation in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya.

Downer said there was no need for a bloodbath in the province and the world should encourage dialogue. "We make it perfectly clear that the violent option is totally unacceptable. There is no need for bloodshed," he told a press conference.

"We don't want to see the Balkanization of Indonesia. We don't want to see Irian Jaya break off from Indonesia. We support Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya." He added if the international community started supporting secessionist movements in Indonesia it would create a "very significant regional crisis, a political crisis and a security crisis."

"Giving comfort to independence movements in Irian Jaya or Aceh or the Maluku or Kalimantan or wherever it might be ... is going to be inimical to the security interests of the Asia-Pacific region." Downer and Goff told reporters that they want to establish a new forum in the region, the West Pacific Forum. They hoped to start drafting a framework for the new body early next year.

The West Pacific Forum would include the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor as well as Australia and New Zealand. The forum would be aimed at strengthening trade and defense ties between the nations, the ministers said.

The forum would cover a broad range of nations that have in recent months suffered strained relations – Australia and Indonesia in particular are still working to heal the diplomatic wounds caused by Canberra's high profile role in restoring peace to East Timor after the former Indonesian province voted in 1999 for independence.