However, it's still uncertain whether Mr Joko will return the favour and make it to Brisbane for the G20 meeting in mid November.

Fairfax Media has learned that Mr Abbott plans to arrive on Sunday, attend the Monday handover ceremony, and is likely to leave that night. He is hoping to also hold a bilateral meeting with Mr Joko, known as Jokowi, but no firm time has yet been found for that.

Mr Abbott is the first serving national leader who has been confirmed to attend the presidential inauguration. US Secretary of State John Kerry is understood to be planning to come, as are Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda.

Mr Abbott is following in the footsteps of political mentor John Howard, who was the first international leader to visit the fifth Indonesian president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, after her 2001 swearing in. He also attended Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's inauguration in 2004.

Sources say that Mr Joko remains undecided about coming to the G20. It is the third international summit in November after two he cannot miss - APEC in Beijing and ASEAN in Myanmar.

However, the Australian government will be very keen to lure Mr Joko to Brisbane for his first official visit to Australia.

Mr Abbott has said he wants Australia's foreign policy to be "more Jakarta than Geneva," but since his election last year, has presided over a rocky relationship, including the six-month withdrawal of Indonesia's ambassador from Canberra over the spying issue.

He, like other Australian leaders before him, tried to build strong ties with outgoing President  Yudhoyono, and he will also be keen to find points of common interest with Mr Joko.

The new president comes to office at a time when tensions over boat people are relatively low, the beef trade between the two countries is booming and a code of conduct has been signed with Dr Yudhoyono to resolve the spying issue. But bilateral business, trade and people-to-people links remain underdeveloped.

Dr Yudhoyono also now seems likely to have left the issue of clemency for two of the Bali Nine drug smugglers on death row unresolved. That matter will now pass to Mr Joko.