Australian crash victims back home
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The bodies of nine Australian military personnel killed when their helicopter crashed during relief work in Indonesia have arrived back in Sydney.
The deceased men and women were to be honored in a ceremony in the city attended by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, senior military and the victims' families.
Prime Minister Howard said earlier he would be meeting the families of those killed to express his "intense sorrow at what has happened".
The nine Australians died when their helicopter crashed as they were delivering medical help to earthquake victims on the Indonesian island of Nias.
The Chief of the Australian Defense Force, General Peter Cosgrove, said the families and loved ones of the deceased would be "supported through this difficult time".
In a statement released Tuesday, Cosgrove said: "This is a difficult period for all, but in the true spirit of the armed services, they will not be forgotten."
"Their legacy will indeed strengthen that ethos and foundations of that spirit."
Indonesia's President Yudhoyono, who is on a state visit to Australia, said in Canberra on Monday that Indonesia would honor the dead and two other Australians wounded in the crash by awarding them the country's Medal of Valor.
Yudhoyono was to place the medals on the coffins while Australia's Governor General will place a symbolic sprig of the native Australian wattle plant on each casket.
Earlier, Howard said Australia and Indonesia had signed off on a "comprehensive partnership" that would be the framework for future bilateral ties between the two nations.
Yudhoyono called the partnership the "most significant landmark" in the two nations' sometimes-troubled relationship.
It will address economic, trade and security issues and will have a focus on the joint reconstruction of Indonesia's devastated Aceh province in the wake of the December 26 tsunami that left 220,000 Indonesians dead or missing.
Australia has already committed Aust. $1 billion ($770 million) to the Aceh rebuilding effort.
Howard and Yudhoyono met in Canberra Monday for what the Australian leader said was a discussion of "all the most important issues", including an emphasis on fighting terrorism.
Yudhoyono said the two leaders agreed that in strengthening their cooperation on combating terrorism, they needed to address the root causes of terrorism, and to promote "inter-faith dialogue."
On the defense relationship, Yudhoyono expressed his enthusiasm at what he said was improved cooperation between the Australian and Indonesian military.
Earlier, Howard cautioned against any early breakthrough on a security agreement.
"It is not something that will be concluded overnight," Howard told a Sydney radio station.
Yudhoyono had already said that while security was on the agenda, a defense pact was not.
An earlier security pact signed in 1995 collapsed in 1999, when relations between the neighbors reached a low point after Australia played a major role in the U.N.-led intervention in East Timor, following its vote for independence from Indonesia.
Ties have improved in recent years and efforts to strengthen Australia's relationship with the world's most populous Muslim country gained momentum after Yudhoyono became Indonesia's first directly-elected president last October.
Australia and Indonesian police worked closely after the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and again after a car bomb exploded outside Australia's Jakarta embassy last September, killing 10 Indonesians.
Howard and Yudhoyono have already met each other several times, most recently at a regional tsumani response meeting in Jakarta in January.
