SYDNEY -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard left Sydney for Jakarta Sunday to meet newly-installed Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Howard will be the first foreign leader to meet the new president. He said that although Australia had had problems in the past with Indonesia he was looking forward to building a good rapport with Megawati. "We shouldn't exaggerate the potential of the relationship nor should we ignore its fundamental importance," he told reporters at Sydney Airport. "Our relationship has had difficulties in the past and we don't in any way pull back from anything Australia has done in the past but we do look to the future." Howard is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta later Sunday on a commercial flight and go directly to the presidential palace for a 15-minute courtesy call. A one-hour bilateral meeting is planned for Monday morning, followed by talks with Indonesia's parliamentary leaders Amien Rais and Akbar Tandjung, AFP reported. The two nations fell out over Australia's perceived support for East Timor's independence from Jakarta and its subsequent leadership of a peacekeeping force deployed in the former Indonesian province in 1999. But recently-ousted president Abdurrahman Wahid helped put relations back on track when in June he became the first Indonesian leader to visit Australia in 26 years. Australian troops had spearheaded the UN-sanctioned peacekeeping force into East Timor in September 1999 to stem an orchestrated campaign of terror mounted by Indonesian-backed militias. The UN authorized the peacekeepers' deployment after the militias embarked on a bloody rampage after East Timor's August 1999 referendum result in favor of independence from Indonesia.