The Indonesian government said its exports to China could double in three years following the gradual implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA), official said.

The director general of international cooperation at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Pos M. Hutabarat, said Thursday that Presidential Decree No. 48/2004 was issued on Tuesday, ratifying the FTA between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.

"After the ratification, we target to double our export value to China from 2.9 billion US dollars last year to 5.8 billion dollars in 2007," he was quoted Friday by The Jakarta Post as saying.

China, with its fast growing economy and huge population, is increasingly becoming an important market for Indonesian exports.

ASEAN agreed to set up an FTA with China in 2002, and during the 2003 ASEAN Summit on Bali, the grouping further agreed to accelerate the realization of the FTA through an early harvest program.

Pos said that since Jan. 1, Indonesia had reduced import tariffs on some 600 of 11,000 products listed in the ASEAN-China FTA as part of the early harvest program.

He said by 2010, when the FTA with China is fully established, ASEAN expected to have cut down or removed import tariffs on up to 95 percent of listed products.

The remaining 5 percent are classified as sensitive products, including electronics and automobiles.

ASEAN groups together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. China, India and Japan are ASEAN dialog partners.

Meanwhile, Pos played down fears over the possible impact of an economic slowdown in China on bilateral trade. He stressed that none of Indonesia's export products would be affected by China's tightening measures, and added that China was likely to enjoy a soft landing.