Singapore – US Defence Secretary Robert Gates met here Sunday with his Indonesian counterpart to discuss ways of deepening military relations between the two countries with an emphasis on reform.

Gates and Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono both "stressed the importance of encouraging ongoing reforms undertaken by Indonesia's military, a crucial and inseparable part of democratic reforms," they said in a joint statement.

Military relations between the two countries have been improving in recent years after a long period in which they were suspended because of the Indonesian military's human rights record.

Their meeting on the sidelines of an international conference on Asian security came two days after an independent government watchdog in Jakarta found that Indonesian marines fired directly at protesters in clashes this week that left four people dead.

The Indonesian navy had said the marines fired only into the air and onto the ground to scare armed protesters who were threatening them. The joint US-Indonesia statement made no mention of the incident.

It said Gates and Sudarsono agreed that "the two countries' security and military-to-military ties need to be continuously monitored, managed and nurtured within the framework of Indonesia's ongoing democratic transformation."

"They also discussed ways and means to deepen the strategic partnership between Indonesia and the USA," it said. "They underlined the importance of strengthening existing bilateral cooperation to address various strategic challenges."