Indonesia returns to world stage for Asia-Africa summit

JAKARTA, Monday (Reuters) - When scores of Asian and African leaders descend on Indonesia this week, they will find an increasingly stable country re-asserting itself in the region, and its rowdy democracy a beacon to the Muslim world.

With an urbane English-speaking president, Indonesia for the first time in a decade is winning back international respect and stature after years of crisis, communal blood-letting and an initially tepid response to fighting terrorism.

That will allow Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to showcase Indonesia's triumphs when he welcomes heads of government from countries such as China, Japan and India at the 50th anniversary of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference, which marked the first major move by the Third World to speak in a unified voice.

More than 100 countries have been invited to the Asia-Africa leaders' meeting on April 22-23 in Jakarta, and on a nostalgic trip to Bandung on April 24, a city in West Java province where the original conference was held 50 years ago.

"The timing is propitious, because Indonesia appears to have completed a transition to democracy and to be handling its domestic problems reasonably well," said William Liddle, a long-time expert on Indonesia from Ohio State University.