Two Israeli diplomats met with senior Indonesian government officials in Jakarta on Tuesday for the first time in six years.

The Israelis - Amos Nidai, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asia desk, and Yael Rubinstein, Israel's ambassador to Thailand - were invited to Jakarta to attend a UN economics conference dealing with trade cooperation opportunities, technology, agriculture and medicine.

Nidai and Rubeinstein used the opportunity to meet Indonesian government officials and discuss the possibility of forging diplomatic ties between Israel and Indonesia.

However, Indonesian Foreign Minister Nur Hassan Wirayuda said the Israelis visiting Indonesia were members of a technical delegation participating in the conference as observers. He denied the guests met with Indonesia officials.

"Since it is a multilateral gathering, then the presence of delegation from any country should not be linked with whether or not it has diplomatic relations with Indonesia," he said.

This is the first visit to Indonesia by Israeli officials within the last six years.

"We were welcomed and received warmly whenever we said we were from Israel," Nidai told Army Radio. "We believe that we will not be able to have full diplomatic relations with Indonesia until the Middle East crisis is resolved... However, until then, many other things can be done, and that's what we're here to explore."

According to Nidai, Indonesia craves a commercial-financial relationship with Israel.

"We spoke to many people in the private sector about financial issues and much to my surprise they know a lot about Israel," Nidai said.

Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world, refuses to maintain official diplomatic ties with Israel.

The Foreign Ministry has recently been trying to bridge the gap between the two nations but, up until now, Indonesia has not shown any desire to forge ties with Israel.

The Foreign Ministry hoped talks could have been held between the two countries when Israel sent relief supplies to Indonesia after the tsunami. Foreign Ministry Director General Ron Prosor had been on the plane carrying the supplies and was hoping to conduct talks with Indonesian officials.

However, the Indonesians did not even allow Prosor to deplane.

Last September a surprising advance in the frozen relation between Israel and Indonesia took place when then Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met secretly in New York with his Indonesian counterpart Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda.