Obama’s Indonesia visit likely to be cut short

US President Barack Obama arrived in Indonesia today as he continued his Asian tour ahead of this week’s G-20 summit in Seoul.

But the president may be forced to leave the nation earlier than previously scheduled due to ash clouds caused by multiple recent eruptions of the island chain’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi, according to Fox News.

The president’s plane, Air Force One, arrived in Jakarta at 4:20pm local time.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president’s scheduled departure time from Indonesia tomorrow will likely be brought forward because of the ash clouds.

“Getting to Korea a touch earlier is almost certainly going to happen,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

He added that Mr Obama still hoped to deliver a speech scheduled to take place at an Indonesian university.

“My sense is, our hope is, that while we may have to truncate some of the morning [Wednesday] we can get the speech in,” Mr Gibbs said.

The president is due to meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later tonight for talks.

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