By Sebastian Tong

SINGAPORE, April 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia and Singapore said on Monday they had agreed on an extradition treaty, concluding several years of wrangling over the issue.

"It has been a long and arduous process," Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told a media briefing late on Monday in Singapore.

Indonesia has long expressed its desire for an extradition treaty with Singapore because of its concerns that some Indonesians, for example those who owed money to the authorities following the 1997-98 financial crisis, had taken refuge in the neighbouring city-state.

"Our leaders will be meeting in Bali to witness the signing of the agreements," on Friday, Singapore's Minister of Foreign Affairs George Yeo said at the same press briefing. The extradition treaty is linked to a defence co-operation pact between the neighbours.

The ministers declined to say who they might want to extradite.

Singapore is home to a large number of wealthy Indonesians. They are key players in the property market and big business for private banks.

One third of Singapore's high-net-worth investors -- those with net financial assets of more than $1 million -- are of Indonesian origin, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini said in a report, adding that of these 18,000 have total assets of $87 billion.

In January, Indonesia banned sand exports to Singapore, citing environmental concerns and the need to protect its borders, and two months later said it was also considering banning granite chip exports to the city-state.

However, some Indonesian officials were quoted in the local media as saying that the sand export ban was intended to put pressure on Singapore to speed up talks on the extradition treaty.

The sand ban has forced Singapore to look for alternative sources of sand -- including China, Vietnam and Myanmar -- to feed a construction boom.

Singapore is building two multi-billion-dollar casinos to attract more tourists, as well as dozens of glitzy new apartment blocks.

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