The prime minister has denied using the Australian aid program to Indonesia as a threat over the fate of the Bali Nine pair on death row.
Tony Abbott raised Australia's billion dollar tsunami aid effort during his pleas for mercy yesterday but Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the remarks were not helpful.
"What I know is this, threats are not part of diplomatic language ... and from what I know, no one responds well to threats," he told reporters yesterday.
While it was the prime minister’s strongest words on the case to date, Mr Abbott says he was simply reminding Indonesia about the "strength and depth" of the friendship of the two countries.
"Australia has been there for Indonesia when Indonesia has been in difficulty," Mr Abbott said today. "That's what I was pointing out, a simple fact.”
"Indonesia has done a lot for us as well because that's what friends do for each other.
"I want that relationship to grow stronger, stronger, in the weeks and months ahead.”
The Bali Nine drug smugglers have received a few days' grace from the firing squad after Indonesian Attorney-General HM Prasetyo on Tuesday delayed plans for the Australians to be transferred this week to the execution site, Nusakambangan Island.
Tony Abbott said the government had been working "ceaselessly" can to get Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran off death row.
"The focus has got to be ensuring that we appeal to the better angels of our natures," he said.
"The focus has got to be letting Indonesia know that it is in their best interests and in accordance with their best values, with the quality of mercy, which has just a big a place in Indonesian jurisprudence as it does in Australian jurisprudence, that these executions don't go ahead."
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