He said Indonesia suffered a "trust deficit" in the international community that was hampering its ability to win backing for initiatives such as a moratorium on deforestation and cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is the reason for reform. We can turn the trust deficit into a trust surplus. Let's be sure that the institutions in this country are credible," he said in his opening remarks to a weekly cabinet meeting.

Indonesia is one of the top emitters of climate-warming gases blamed for rising global temperatures, largely through deforestation due to illegal logging and clearing for palm oil plantations, experts say.

Yudhoyono shocked environmentalists and palm planters alike last month when he announced a two-year moratorium on deforestation from 2011 in exchange for a billion dollars in financial support from Norway.

But no one knows how the moratorium will work in a country where experts say illegal logging is rampant and the government's figures about deforestation rates are seen as wildly inaccurate.

"All institutions in this country must be credible so that there are no obstacles when we seek cooperation with friendly countries and the international community," Yudhoyono said, referring to the pact with Norway.

At December's Copenhagen climate summit, six nations pledged a total of 3.5 billion dollars to help developing countries fight forest loss, seen as a leading cause of global warming.

Under a deal signed last month, Norway will contribute up to one billion dollars to help preserve Indonesian forests from 2014, but only as long as Indonesia makes verifiable progress in halting deforestation.

The verifiability of such initiatives is crucial to broader UN-backed efforts to link developed-world climate change funds to forest conservation in developing countries like Indonesia and Brazil.

Yudhoyono has promised to cut emissions by 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and more than 40 percent with international funds to pay for forest conservation.

But a report on illegal logging in Indonesia by Human Rights Watch (HRW) last year described the country's forestry system as "deeply mismanaged and corrupt".

Similar concerns have been expressed by the World Bank, the International Tropical Timber Organisation and in reports commissioned by the government itself, HRW said.

Indonesia's largest paper producer, Asia Pulp and Paper, has lost its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification -- as well as corporate clients such as Office Depot, Wal-Mart and Woolworths -- over forest concerns.

The FSC also dropped Indonesia's Asia Paper Resources International Ltd. (APRIL) earlier this year due to alleged conversion of rainforests for acacia plantations and the draining peatlands, among other things.

Corporate giants Unilever and Nestle also this year dropped supplies of palm oil -- used in everything from chocolate to cosmetics and soap -- from Indonesia's biggest producer, Sinar Mas, over alleged forest destruction.

And in 2009 the World Bank suspended International Finance Corporation funding of the country's entire oil palm sector -- the biggest producer in the world -- on social and environmental grounds.

But Indonesian Palm Oil Association chief Joko Supriyono does not even acknowledge that forests are being illegally cleared for plantations.

"It depends on the definition of 'forest'," he told a seminar Thursday.

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