Sydney – Australian Prime Minister John Howard was forced to acknowledge Thursday the testiness of his country's relationship with Indonesia as a new diplomatic spat brewed.

Howard admitted Canberra's relationship with Jakarta was "not an easy one" after a senior Indonesian minister criticised the way Australia's political leaders handle sensitive issues. "I don't want to run the risk of giving offence ... it is not an easy relationship, but it's a relationship that we patiently work on," Howard told commercial radio. "But it's got to be a relationship built on mutual respect."

However, he obliquely criticised Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for her "unwillingness" to accept his phone calls amid the refugee crisis caused by rising numbers of Middle Eastern asylum seekers using Indonesia as a jumping-off point for illegal entry to Australia. "President Megawati's unwillingness to return a phone call is seen in a particular light in Australia because our culture is that in those circumstances it's impolite not to return people's calls," Howard said. "In other cultures it can be seen quite different. It can be seen as a sign of not wishing to give offence because they can't agree with what they think the request is going to be."

The latest dispute to mar bilateral links between Canberra and Jakarta began when Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda criticised late Wednesday Australia's diplomatic methodology. "There is a certain tendency in Australia to communicate through public diplomacy rather than quiet [diplomacy]," Wirayuda told SBS television. "This is certainly in many ways unacceptable. To go public and accuse the other side of doing something wrong ... it's not our habit to go through this process in terms of again responding through public [means] – it's only worsening the situation."

Wirayuda was referring to the politically-charged issue of boat people and Australia's demands that Jakarta intensify its efforts to eradicate people-smuggling syndicates operating under its jurisdiction. "It's a matter of cultural tendency here in Indonesia that when you want to enter someone's house, you cannot shout in front of it and ask to enter the house," Wirayuda said.

In August, Australia refused to admit more than 430 asylum seekers rescued by a Norwegian-flagged cargo ship, the Tampa, after their Indonesian vessel sank while en route here. Howard steadfastly maintained the problem was for Norway and Indonesia to solve.

The Indonesian president refused to accept Howard's telephone calls at the height of the Tampa affair and rejected his appeals for a private meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shanghai last month. Jakarta's political elite was reportedly incensed by what it viewed as Australia's bellicose bullying – a charge that exacerbated existing tensions arising from Australia's leadership of a United Nation's peacekeeping force to East Timor in 1999.

East Timor's long pro-independence guerrilla war ended in September that year when Australian troops spearheaded an international force that subdued pro-Jakarta militia fighters armed and trained by Jakarta. The Indonesian military was consequently forced to stage a humiliating withdrawal.