JAKARTA, Feb 18: An Indonesian Islamic leader rejected on Wednesday an invitation to dine with Hillary Clinton, as she seeks to rebuild ties with the Muslim world on her first trip abroad as US secretary of state.

The snub came as Hillary Clinton arrived in the world’s most populous Muslim country as part of a four-nation swing through Asia.

Her plans to open a new chapter with the Islamic world, as promised by President Barack Obama, received an early setback when local Muslim leader Din Syamsuddin, representing some 30 million Muslims, rejected her dinner invitation.

“If it’s only a dinner without dialogue it won’t be useful,” the chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organisation, said.

He said he would prefer to attend an inter-faith meeting in Australia rather than waste time discussing local delicacies with the new US secretary of state.

“That kind of meeting won’t be effective,” he said.

Obama spent part of his early childhood in Indonesia and has promised rapprochement with the Islamic world.

The massive archipelago of 234 million people has had its share of terror attacks since 9/11, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings which killed over 200 people.

Obama is hugely popular and expectations are high here that he will prioritise relations with Indonesia as a possible bridge with other Islamic countries and a democratic bulwark against extremism.

Speaking in Japan on Tuesday during the first stop on her trip, Hillary Clinton said the new administration wanted to “work with the Muslim world on behalf of positive change”.

“And I think you will see from President Obama and those of us in this administration a concerted effort to present a different position to the Islamic world,” she told students at Tokyo University.

Syamsuddin acknowledged that Obama wanted a fresh start with Muslims, but said first the United States had to “stop seeing the Muslim world as an enemy and instead as a strategic partner”.

“Secondly they have to change the militaristic approach like in Iraq and Afghanistan, and use soft power like diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.

But most importantly, Washington has to drop its one-sided support of Israel in the Middle East conflict, he said.

“It has to change its double standards over the conflict between Palestine and Israel... If it fails to do so, don’t expect the Obama administration to have better ties with the Muslim world,” Syamsuddin said.

Despite holding similar reservations, the head of the country’s largest Muslim organisation said he would attend the dinner along with about 50 other invitees.

Hasyim Muzadi of the Nahdlatul Ulama, representing about 60 million Indonesians, said: “It’s more of a courtesy meeting than a dialogue. The US efforts to mend ties with Islamic nations by visiting Indonesia is a good thing as Indonesia

is a moderate Muslim country and a good role model.”

Fringe radical groups Hizbut Tahrir and Ansharut Tauhid said Mrs Clinton was not welcome and doubted Obama would change US foreign policy.

“Obama’s administration will be the same as the Bush administration. Obama still leans toward Zionist Israel,” Hizbut Tahrir chairman Farid Wajdi said.

Ansharut Tauhid spokesman Haris Amir Falah said: “Although the US has decided to take its troops out of Iraq, it is still concentrating its forces in Afghanistan. Muslims anywhere are our brothers and we should help them.”—AFP