JAKARTA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- The appointment of Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih as the new Health Minister in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's new cabinet sparked controversy at home for her plan to resume cooperation with U.S.-run military laboratory clinic in Indonesia, local media reported here Thursday.

    Commission IX at Indonesian parliament, which supervises the health ministry's policies, has set a timetable to query the newly-appointed minister regarding her plan to resume the ties with the laboratory whose operation in Indonesia expired on Oct. 16 this year.

    "We will ask her to explain immediately about her intention to resume the cooperation with Namru-2 since we had asked the ministry not to resume (the cooperation with the laboratory) again," Head of Commission IX Ribka Tjiptaning was quoted by the Detik.com as saying.

    Ribka said that the parliament and the ministry already had an agreement to stop the cooperation with the laboratory since the cooperation is marred by allegation that it facilitates U.S. interests in Indonesia.

    Shortly after the announcement of cabinet lineup which named her as the new Indonesia's Health Minister, Endang said Wednesday night that she would resume the cooperation with the U.S. military-run laboratory clinic Naval Medical Research Unit-2 (Namru-2).

    Endang, a fellow medical researcher who was graduated from Harvard University in the United States, said that the resumption of cooperation with Namru-2 laboratory clinic would not be related to military interests.

    The former health minister Siti Fadila Supari alleged that the Namru-2 clinic, which commenced its operation in Indonesia since 1970, was involved in the U.S. intelligence activities.