Jakarta, Dec. 15 -- Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto requested that the construction of housing for victims of the Sumatra floods and landslides be carried out immediately using state-owned land.

"I received a report from the Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas that, perhaps starting this Sunday, we will begin constructing 2,000 houses, likely permanent houses," he said at a Plenary Cabinet Meeting at the State Palace, Jakarta, on Monday.

The president stated that the government has planned the formation of a special agency or task force to handle the rehabilitation and reconstruction of disaster-hit areas.

Through this mechanism, the government will accelerate the construction of both temporary and permanent housing for the...