REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Visiting US senator John McCain has expressed hope for Indonesia and the US to cooperate to crack down on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syri (ISIS) which has now changed into Islamic State (IS).

"The US and Indonesian governments must identify the people (involved in it) and their whereabouts as well as what they are doing because sooner or later Baghdadi would motivate young men interested in IS to fight in their respective countries besides remaining committed to terrorism," he said at a discussion on US foreign policy along with fellow visiting senator Sheldon Whitehouse here on Tuesday.

McCain said some US citizens have also been lured by IS and gone to fight in Syria who later carried out a suicide car bombing in Syria.

"Cooperation with countries especially those with biggest Molem population would play a big role in helping use fight propaganda that could attract youths to become the most extreme ones," he said.

McCain said efforts to crush IS so far could only be done by air strikes to minimize victims.

"We now have the biggest and richest terrorist enclave," he said.

Whitehouse meanwhile said IS could be eradicated if the Iraqi government would immediately conduct reform to make it more functional and operational.

"However the government there right now does not have the structure that it is supposed to be," he said.

The US government according to reports would supply weapons to Peshmerga fighters in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq to help them fight the IS militants.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received visiting US Senators John McCain and Sheldon Whitehouse at his office here on Tuesday and discussed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) issue, among several other things.

"We have also talked about ISIS, and as one of the countries with a Muslim majority population we hope it will remain peaceful and moderate to become a role model of an open society. We believe in the leadership of President Yudhoyono," he stated at a press conference after the meeting.

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