Italy agreed on Wednesday to convert some US$32 million Indonesian debt into a debt swap, which could be used to help reconstruction in Indonesia's tsunami-hit of Aceh and north Sumatra provinces.

Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda and his Italian counterpart Margherita Boniver signed the agreement in Jakarta.

The step was a follow-up of the Indonesian foreign minister visit to Rome on January 14 to 15, 2005, discussing assistance for Aceh Province, and of the agreement in the Paris Club III on April12-13, 2002, which agreed to convert Indonesia's debt into a debt swap and rescheduling between Indonesia and Italy on Dec. 4, 2003.

More than 230,000 people were killed or missing in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster in the provinces of Aceh and north Sumatra.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2005)