China and Indonesia welcome Rudd win in Australia

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese media and Australian neighbor Indonesia have welcomed the Labor Party victory that has swept a conservative coalition from power in Canberra and made former diplomat Kevin Rudd prime minister of Australia.

Some Japanese media, however, sounded a note of caution on Sunday over Rudd's close ties to Tokyo's sometime rival, Beijing.

Mandarin speaker Rudd, 50, presented himself to voters as a new-generation leader and is expected to forge closer ties with China and other Asian nations than his predecessor, John Howard.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman for foreign affairs, Dino Patti Djalal, said Indonesia welcomed Rudd's election because it would improve the chances of success at next month's U.N. climate change summit in Bali.

"President (Yudhoyono) invited Kevin Rudd to attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali. And we are sure that his attendance will have a symbolic meaning for the conference and also will change the political dynamic ... because Australia has not signed the Kyoto Protocol."

Speaking to media in Brisbane, Rudd said: "President Yudhoyono formally invited me to attend the Bali conference, which will of course deal with climate change and where we go to now on Kyoto. I responded positively."

China's official Xinhua news agency carried reports on Sunday of Rudd greeting Chinese President Hu Jintao in fluent Mandarin in September and of his posting to Australia's Beijing embassy in the 1980s.

"This period of history gave him close contact with China and a chance to observe and understand China's politics, economy and culture," the report said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a separate message to Rudd, congratulating him on his election victory.

But Rudd's anticipated warmth towards China had some Japanese media worried it might weaken Tokyo ties with Canberra, which in recent years saw the start of talks for a free trade agreement and the signing of a joint defense pact.

"There are views there could be a setback in Australia-Japan relations under the new Rudd administration," the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

"Rudd, a former diplomat who studied Mandarin, is seen having friendly views towards China," it added.

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck in Beijing, Telly Nathalia in Jakarta and Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo; writing by Jerry Norton; editing by Roger Crabb)