Jakarta (Agencies) – The newly appointed defense minister said on Monday Indonesia would shift its purchase of military equipment to nations other than the United States, its traditional supplier.

"We will explore all other countries for arms supplies, such as Japan and eastern Europe. Earlier, we sought weapons from South Korea and Singapore," Juwono Sudarsono told reporters. Juwono said he planned to visit Poland soon to look into the possibility of buying arms from that country.

Last year, Indonesia bought four Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters for the Air Force and several Mil Mi assault/transport helicopters for the army, along with a number of KT-1B training planes from South Korea for the Air Force academy.

In regards the US military embargo still in place, Juwono said he would visit Washington to discuss the resumption of military ties. The US Congress has continued to block motions to resume military ties with Indonesia, which were severed in 1999 when Indonesian soldiers and militias took part in a rampage and killed hundreds of people in East Timor following its independence referendum.

"But we will never beg," Juwono said, adding that he would probably visit Washington sometime next month.

Indonesia wants to resume full military ties with the US so it can buy new military equipment and take part in US defense training programs.

Juwono said the embargo actually hurting the US itself, as it sold on a few military equipment in the past. "They sold, for example, the C-130 Hercules transport planes which was also affected by the embargo, due to the scarcity of spare parts.

"We use these planes mostly for humanitarian missions, as well as deploying troops to conflict areas," he said. He added that the embargo had prevented such missions from going smoothly.