"We met several times with Indonesian government officials regarding the PL 480 Title 1 portion and I think we made a great headway...and we are very close to being ready to sign that agreement," USDA general sales manager Christopher Goldthwait told Reuters.

PL 480 is a programme to boost US farm exports, and the Title 1 agreement provides for government-to-government export transactions with financing in foreign currency.

Goldthwait is in Manila on the third leg of an Asian trip to promote US farm exports. In addition to Indonesia and the Philippines, he visited Singapore and is leaving Manila for South Korea later on Tuesday.

"It is possible that it (a loan) will be signed as early...as the end of this week," he said. "It will cover soybeans and rice, and there is also awheat component...through a private sector agreement with two...flour mills." Goldthwait identified the two Indonesian flour mills as Sriboga and Citra.

Goldthwait said the US government was looking at plans to donate wheat to Indonesia as part of US president Bill Clinton's food aid initiative.

"The department of agriculture is planning on purchasing 2.5 million tonnes of wheat at our domestic market in an effort to increase US farm prices," he said.

"That wheat would be...donated as food aid to countries. Indonesia is one among the countries that we are looking at and based on my visit there, there is a need for some additional food assistance beyond what we have provided for under PL 480," Goldthwait said.

Indonesia, one of the countries hit hardest by the Asian currency crisis, has also utilised USDA's farm export credit guarantees.

"We have a $400-million allocation for exports to Indonesia, of which we have seen utilised about $100 million worth...largely by the textile industry and by theBulog for purchasing soybeans," Goldthwait said, adding the credit line was for the current US fiscal year ending September 30.