"It's in poor taste," commented Mallarangeng.

JAKARTA, April 1, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Ties between Indonesia and Australia have strained after a series of published cartoons that luridly lampooned the top officials in both countries.

The latest of such offensive drawings appeared in an Australian paper depicting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a dog, which was described Saturday, April 1, by Jakarta as "tasteless," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It's in poor taste. Sometimes the media, both in Indonesia and other countries, resort to poor taste, which actually demonstrates the level of their quality," Indonesian Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told AFP.

Mallarangeng said Yudhoyono had not seen the Australian caricature but the president "laughed" when told of the depiction.

The Australian caricature, drawn by award-winning cartoonist Bill Leak, shows Yudhoyono as a tail-wagging dog mounting a startled-looking Papua dog and saying "don't take this the wrong way."

The caption under the cartoon reads "no offence intended."

Last Monday, March 27, Indonesian tabloid Rakyat Merdeka ran a front-page caricature portraying Prime Minister John Howard and his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as copulating dingoes.

It shows Howard being mounted on his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer with the premier saying: "I want Papua!! Alex! Try to make it happen."

Howard dismissed the Indonesian cartoon, although Downer described it as grotesque and "way below standards of public taste".

"Editors have responsibility to be mindful of the consequences of what they publish, particularly when they knowingly publish material that is likely to be found offensive in some quarters," Downer said in a statement.

"Editors have responsibility to be mindful of the consequences of what they publish," said Downer.

The cartoon war comes amid tensions between Jakarta and Canberra over Australia's decision to grant refugees three-year visas to 42 asylum-seekers from Indonesia's restive Papua province despite a request from Yudhoyono for the asylum seekers to be returned.

The group of Papuans includes prominent separatists and their families, who arrived by boat in northern Australia in January.

In response, Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Canberra, postponed an agreement on jointly fighting bird flu, and angry Indonesians have protested outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than 30 years to break away from Indonesia, while a low-level rebellion has also simmered.

Human rights groups accuse Indonesia of widespread abuses there, but Jakarta denies any wrongdoing.

Howard again reassured Indonesia that Australia had not changed its support for Indonesian sovereignty over Papua, saying that Canberra's processes for dealing with asylum seekers were independent of foreign policy considerations.

Traditionally volatile, Canberra's ties with Jakarta hit a low in 1999, when Australia led peacekeeping forces into the former Indonesian province of East Timor to quell militia violence.

But the relationship later improved with close anti-terrorism cooperation after the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali which killed scores of Australians, and Canberra's prompt aid following the devastating 2004 tsunami.