Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia is ready to grant Australia another week to persuade 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave a vessel moored in the southeast Asian nation’s waters, a Foreign Ministry official said in Jakarta today.

“We understand the problem that Australia is facing in working out a solution with the 78 Sri Lankan immigrants,” Teuku Faizasyah told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, today. “We are flexible and we have an abundance of patience.”

Officials have tried for almost two weeks to convince the ethnic Tamil refugees to voluntarily leave the Australian customs ship Oceanic Viking and enter a detention center.

Australia and Indonesia plan to draft an agreement to tackle people smuggling before Rudd and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono meet in Singapore next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government is under pressure from opposition lawmakers to cut the number of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters.

Indonesia is “prepared” to allow the Oceanic Viking to remain in the nation’s waters until Nov. 13, Faizasyah said.

The authorities are trying to persuade the Sri Lankans to go to a camp in Tanjung Pinang, a town about 800 kilometers (497 miles) northwest of Jakarta on Bintan Island near the border with Singapore. Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands spread across a country wider than the distance between New York and Los Angeles.

The Australian customs boat picked up the Sri Lankan Tamils from their damaged boat in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone last month. Australia wants its northern neighbor to control the transit of asylum seekers sailing through the world’s largest archipelago.

The Australian opposition says there has been an influx of refugees in the past year after Rudd’s government ended a policy of detaining asylum seekers in island camps in third countries while their claims are processed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Achmad Sukarsono in Jakarta at asukarsono@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 00:24 EST