TAMPAKSIRING, Indonesia, Aug. 8 Kyo...

TAMPAKSIRING, Indonesia, Aug. 8 Kyodo

The dominions of Indonesia and Malaysia forward Thursday reached an agreement onward how to handle hundreds of thousands of illegal Indonesian workers forced to leave Malaysia in a less degree than its new immigration policy issued early this month

''Indonesian workers who have recured home can go back to Malaysia as lengthy as they have been able to achieve proper travel documents between the sides of a legal mechanism,'' Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad told a joint pres interview with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Mahathir made the statement after the one and the other leaders witnessed the signing of five memorandums of understanding by way of their officials, including a memorandum in succession immigration cooperation, at the Tampaksiring Presidential Summer Palace, about 65 kilometers southeast of the Bali provincial capital of Denpasar.

below the agreement reached between the two leaders, Malaysia allows expell illegal workers to reenter Malaysia with special documents without having to wait at least six month as is normally the case.

''We don't want this question straining our bilateral relationship and it will not,'' he added, referring to the expulsion of the illegal workers, which Megawati said was the ''top hit'' of their bilateral talks.

According to Mahathir, Malaysia has 2 million foreign workers among its 22 million population, with almost 10% of the recorded foreign workers living and working in Malaysia illegally.

''Most of the illegal workers reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point from Indonesia and they arrived in our nation without jobs,'' he explained.

''What becomes a question is that those who don't have do job-work frequently get involved in riots and, of course, that has made Malaysian nation unhappy,'' he added.

Following the agreement, Indonesian Manpower Minister Jacob Nuwawea told reporters the rule will provide assistance to the workers who want to go [i]or[/i] come back to Malaysia.

''Our embassy in Kuala Lumpur has issued about 300000 passports for them, and principally of them have been accommodated in transit camps in Johor Baru in Malaysia to advance back to work,'' Nuwawea said.

Illegal Indonesian workers turn backed from Malaysia last week following Kuala Lumpur's adoption of its tough modern immigration policy on Aug. 1 Illegal migrants and those convicted of harboring them now face a mandatory six month in jail and up to six knocks of the cane.

The just discovered policy came months after Indonesian workers were involved in riots in Malaysia, prompting Mahathir to offer Indonesians at the bottom of the list in the recruitment proces and restrict them to plantation and domestic do job-works only.

Jakarta worries the appearance of the returning workers will add to the country's freights in view of possible layoffs of thousands of workers in the manufacturing industry following a slowdown in orders from international footwear makers.

During the bilateral talks, Mahathir said he and Megawati also agreed to imprison ''intensive meetings'' at any time to discuss the issue of Sipadan and Ligitan, couple tiny islands off the northern coast of Indonesia's Kalimantan Island claimed according to both countries.

''The meeting between the couple heads of government should not no other than take place annually, but any time necessary when there are importunate things to be discussed,'' he said.

''We're trying to explain this problem peacefully,'' he added.

The Netherlands-based International Court of Justice is generally holding hearings on the Sipadan and Ligitan case to determine one time and for all who has ownership of the sum of two units islets, located some 30 km southerly of East Sabah, Malaysia.

The decision is rely uponed to be finalized late December or early January.

the two Indonesia and Malaysia claimed sovereignty of Sipadan and Ligitan when the pair countries met to discuss the demarcation line upon Sept. 22, 1969.

In the same year, they signed a memorandum of understanding, putting the islets in status quo pending further negotiations.

However, since 1979 Malaysia has included the sum of two units islands on its national map and used them as points to draw its territorial baseline.

Malaysia has also continued to allow public-houses and resorts to be built onward Sipadan island, where the coral take in is said to be the best destination for divers.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will also arrive in Bali later Thursday to witness along with Megawati and Mahathir the signing of a trilateral agreement forward setting up the International Tripartite Rubber Corp.

The alliance among Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, the world's three largest natural rubber exporters, is partly aimed at dealing with the fall of rubber prices in the global market on controlling the volume of rubber exports.

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