Indonesia's envoy to Seoul, Nicholas Tandi Dammen, visited the Foreign Ministry asking for cooperation, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said.

Indonesia suspects that several officers from South Korea's National Intelligence Service broke into their suite in the Lotte Hotel in Seoul last week.

The two men and one woman are accused of looking at a delegate's laptop computer and downloading information to a USB memory stick when they were disturbed by a returning delegate.

Some South Korean media report that the computer belonged to an aide of Indonesian Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa. The information the three people were attempting to access surrounded the potential sale by South Korea of its indigenous T-50 Golden Eagle jet trainer.

Of interest to the suspected spies were the negotiation tactics of the Indonesian delegation, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

"Indonesia asked us to verify the exact facts," Cho said. "We are verifying the facts and we agreed to inform them as soon as we are done."

In Jakarta, Indonesian Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said no military documents or classified papers appeared to have been stolen.

An NIS official in Seoul, speaking anonymously to the media, said his organization "strongly" denies the report and it has "not done such a thing."

The 50-member delegation of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Seoul Feb. 15 for a three-day visit, which included a courtesy call to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

In May the South Korean air force took delivery of the 50th and final advanced T-50. But South Korea is looking for export orders for the aircraft to make it economical to produce, which is why the government is taking seriously Indonesia's spying concerns.

Indonesia has shortlisted the T-50 Golden Eagle as its next trainer.

The two-seater T-50 is built by Korean Aerospace Industries from an early 1990s design, based on the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, the trainer developed for future pilots of the F-16, which is used by South Korea.

The T-50 uses a General Electric F404 turbofan engine producing 17,700 pounds of thrust for a maximum speed of Mach 1.4 to 48,000 feet altitude. The range is around 1,150 miles.

Importantly, its training systems are designed to enable a smooth transition to more advanced fighters including the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning II and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. KAI also produces the TA-50 light armed fighter and the T-50B, aerobatic performance aircraft.

Lockheed Martin funded 13 percent of the aircraft's development, KAI put in 17 percent and the South Korean government financed the rest.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems and KAI created the T-50 International Company, known as TFIC, to pursue export markets outside South Korea.

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