NO TRAVEL WARNINGS ON RI SO FAR : FOREIGN MINISTRY

Jakarta, July 25 (ANTARA) - No foreign country has so far issued a travel warning on Indonesia following the bomb attacks on two top hotels in Jakarta last week, Indonesia's foreign ministry said.

The ministry's spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, said on Friday a number of countries, such as the United States and Australia, had only issued a travel advisory, not a travel warning.

"So far, there has been no travel warnings but travel advisories from a number of countries such as the United States and Australia. It is a normal thing for a state to advise its citizens that they should be careful when they visit Indonesia," the foreign ministry spokesman said.

He said even though the countries had issued travel advisories, the decision to visit or not to visit Indonesia was still in the hands of the foreign citizens concerned.

Faizasyah said that in connection with the bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels which killed nine people and injured 53 others in Jakarta on July 17, 2009, the United States and Australian governments had offered assistance for the investigation into the incidents.

The governments of the two countries had conveyed their offer officially to the Indonesian government. "We have received the offers and passed them on to the National Police who have to decide," the foreign ministry spokesman said when questioned about the matter.

He said the United States would provide data, including DNA data on members of international terrorist networks. In the meantime, the Australian government had offered expertise in the identification of persons seen on CCTV footage.

In this case, CCTV footages were badly needed to help identify the perpetrators of the bombings of the two top hotels in the capital city which took place on Friday (July 17, 2009) last last week.