Legal call: Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung (centre) meets with Victoria's Deputy Premier and Attorney General Rob Hulls, and Department of Justice Secretary Penny Armytage.

Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung has begun his three-day Australia visit to strengthen ties and promote Hong Kong as an international legal services and dispute- resolution centre.

He will brief senior legal and judicial figures, and representatives of the legal profession, business sector and academia, on the rule of law situation in Hong Kong, and its latest developments as a regional centre for international arbitration.

In Melbourne today, Mr Wong will meet with Victoria Governor Prof David de Kretser, Deputy Premier and Attorney General of Victoria Rob Hulls, and Victoria's Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Louise Warren.

He will attend a roundtable luncheon to exchange views on legal issues with academics and legal practitioners, and visit the Law Institute of Victoria. He will call on Official Secretary and Victoria's Government House Chief Administrator Charles Curwen.

In Canberra tomorrow, Mr Wong will hold meetings with the International Legal Services Advisory Council, the Law Council of Australia and representatives from the state member associations.

He will officiate at the Hong Kong Australia Business Association Canberra Region Branch launching ceremony, and call on Chief Justice Robert Shenton French of the High Court of Australia and Australia Attorney General Robert McClelland.

On November 26 in Sydney, Mr Wong will meet New South Wales Attorney General John Hatzistergos, and Chief Justice James Spigelman of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

He will meet with the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, and address a function organised by the Sydney Law School and Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Mr Wong will return to Hong Kong on November 27.