French President Jacques Chirac assured Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda on Tuesday that France would support Indonesia's debt relief to help the country's reconstruction after tsunami, Chirac's office said.

"Indonesia will count on France's support for emergency aid, debt relief and aid to the reconstruction according to the needs identified by the Indonesian government," Chirac said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's special envoy, Wirayuda, held an one-hour meeting with Chirac on the eve of the Paris Club's meeting that will group major international creditor countries to examine a moratorium on repayments of Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The two countries were hit by tsunamis triggered by a series of huge undersea earthquakes near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Dec. 26 that swept across the coastal countries of the Indian Ocean rim, destroying villages, flooding cities and killing over 150,000 people.

France and Germany have proposed that the Paris Club of creditor nations put a moratorium on repayments of Indonesia's debt of 132 billion dollars.

Wirayuda told journalists earlier in the day that his country would prefer "donations" to more loans.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)