Angry and disappointed - these were the two keywords that came out in media reports of what Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono felt when he received and read the letter from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

These two emotions were due to Mr Abbott's failure to apologise for the eavesdropping done on his mobile phone in 2009 by Australian intelligence agencies.

Indonesian Industrial Minister Mohamad Suleman Hidayat stressed, quoted by The Guardian, "The president is not embarrassed, he's angry."

While the president welcomed Mr Abbott's assurance that Canberra would not do anything in the future to harm or damage its diplomatic relationship with Jakarta, Mr Yudhoyono nevertheless demanded that Australia sign a code of conduct that must be ratified by both parties for Indonesia to lift its hold on cooperation on people smuggling and military cooperation.

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The two leaders agreed to appoint special envoys to tackle the proposed code of conduct. Mr Yudhoyono is expected to insist the inclusion of protocols and a guarantee that phone of Indonesian officials would no longer be wiretapped in the future.

Courier Mail said that envoy could possibly be Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa who was the first to ask an apology from Australia for its espionage. However, Mr Abbott's campaign advisor worsened the situation by tweeting that Mr Natalegawa looked like a Filipino porn star in the 1970s and had the ethics of one.

Also on Wednesday, Trade Minister Andrew Robb committed a diplomatic gaffe when he admitted to the eavesdropping which he said occurred under the previous Labor-led government.

"It's unfortunate that this tapping that took place several years ago has been made public ... But it's there, it's a fact of life, we've got to deal with it," ABC quoted the minister.

But Mr Robb later said he relied only on media news of the spying and he has no specific details on intelligence matters and does not intend to comment further on the issue.

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