Jakarta – Six countries have agreed to set up the Southwest Pacific Forum and will hold a first annual meeting in Indonesia in August, reports said Sunday.

"This forum creates room for cooperation between countries of the Southwest Pacific," said the Director General for Asia, Pacific and Africa at the Indonesian foreign ministry, Makarim Wibisono, according to the Kompas daily.

Speaking in Bali at a meeting of senior officials from the six states – Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines – Wibisono said the forum's first annual get together will be held in Indonesia, possibly in Timika, a town in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda, speaking at the same occasion, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that he believed the forum will bring benefits to each member country.

"The geographic reality tells us that we live with our neighbours and there is a need to closely interact with each other regarding certain issues of mutual concern," Wirayuda said according to Jakarta Post.

He said the main issues to be addressed by the forum will be cooperation in security, border issues, transnational terrorism and crimes, economy and culture between the member states.

The idea for such a grouping was first floated by former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid during a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2000, as a forum to accommodate cooperation with states in the southeast, and east of the region.

Two members of the Southwest Pacific Forum, Indonesia and the Philippines are members of the 10 state ASEAN.