In a visit to an Indonesian town on the outskirts of Jakarta, U.S. President George W. Bush encouraged the continued development of biofuels in that country.
"The technologies are available," Bush told reporters there. He used Brazil as an example of a country using biofuels on a large scale in vehicles.
Unlike Brazil, where 80% of cars run on ethanol derived from corn or sugar, Indonesia's focus on biofuels has centered around palm-based fuels.
With oil prices high, the development of biofuels in Indonesia - the fourth most populous nation in the world and next behind the U.S. with over 233 million people - takes on special significance. Indonesia is the only member of OPEC that is a net importer of oil.
Indonesia currently has nearly a 100% reliance on fossil fuels, but Energy and Minerals Minister Yusgiantoro says he expects biofuels to reduce that figure to 10% by 2010 as the government builds biofuel plants over the next few years.