JAKARTA: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened an Asia-Africa conference on "capacity building for Palestine" alongside Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jakarta on Monday.

The president of the world's most populous Muslim country said the ministerial-level talks aimed to help prepare Palestinians for their own state and reiterated his support for the creation of an independent Palestine.

Yudhoyono said the 53 countries and organisations at the Asia-Africa conference here would reiterate calls for the implementation of the 2003 Middle East peace roadmap.

"The international community must work together in concert to realise the goal of an independent, viable Palestinian state in the very near future," he said.

The one-day conference is being held under the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership framework.

It comes after the Israelis and Palestinians held talks on the sidelines of a summit of Mediterranean leaders in Paris on the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Sunday: "We have never been as close to an accord as we are today."

- AFP/yb