Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla admitted on Friday that there was some truth to an allegation, released by Wikileaks and published today in Australia's The Age newspaper, that he had "distributed" money to Golkar Party members when he was elected party chairman during Golkar's 2004 convention in Bali.

The claim, published today in The Age in an article titled "Yudhoyono 'Abused Power,'" accused Kalla of paying "enormous bribes" to win the chairmanship.

According to the article, a cable from the US embassy said multiple sources had revealed that Kalla's team had offered district boards at least Rp 200 million ($23,000) for their votes.

"Provincial boards – which had the same voting right, but also could influence subordinate district boards – received Rp 500 million or more. According to one contact with prior experience in such matters, board officials received down payments... and would expect full payment from the winner, in cash, within hours of the vote," the article claimed.

Jusuf Kalla said on Friday that the allegation was not altogether false. "Yes, [I spent] between Rp 2 billion to Rp 3 billion," Kalla told news portal tempointeraktif.com on Friday.

He said the money was used to pay for the plane tickets of 3,000 Golkar officials from all over Indonesia. He also paid for the hotel where the convention took place.

However, he said it was customary for the elected Golkar chairman to pay for the plane tickets and hotel. "Almost every political party does it. It's not a secret," he said. "I used my own money, not corruption money," he said.

Kalla is not the only Golkar official mentioned in the newly-revealed cables. They also claim that then Indonesian House of Representatives chairman Agung Laksono had allocated Rp 50 billion for the convention.