Australia threatens to suspend East Timor gas and oil talks<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Sydney<\/p>\n
Australia's foreign minister threatened on Sunday to suspend
\ntalks with East Timor on disputed multi-billion-dollar Timor Sea
\ngas and oil fields, saying the opposition Labor Party had
\npoliticized the issue.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer accused Labor leader Mark
\nLatham of acting irresponsibly by saying last week that he would
\nstart fresh negotiations with East Timor if elected in national
\nelections expected in October or November.<\/p>\n
The long-running negotiations have strained Australia's
\nrelations with East Timor, which wants a greater share of oil
\nrevenues, and Downer said Latham had \"lurched into\" the issue at
\na delicate stage in a bid to score political points.<\/p>\n
He said Latham had undermined Australia's position and the
\ngovernment was considering suspending the next round of talks
\nwith Dili, scheduled for September.<\/p>\n
\"That's obviously something we'll have to consider,\" Downer
\ntold Channel Nine. \"There won't be any point in going ahead with
\nthe negotiations if Labor is going to restart the negotiations
\nafter the election.<\/p>\n
\"This comes at a very bad time, because these negotiations are
\nvery delicate and difficult negotiations.\"<\/p>\n
Australia's conservative government has been accused of
\nbullying one of the world's poorest countries by claiming
\nownership of oil-rich continental shelf two-thirds of the way
\nacross the Timor Sea.<\/p>\n
East Timor wants the border drawn midway between the two, a
\nchange East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said last month
\nwould be worth an additional US$12 billion in revenue for his
\ncountry over the \"next generation\", compared to $4.0 billion
\nunder the existing arrangement.<\/p>\n
Latham said last week that Labor would start negotiations from
\nscratch because \"bad blood\" had dominated the existing talks.<\/p>\n
He said it was important for East Timor to remain a viable
\nnation and it would not be in Australia's interests to have a
\nfailed state on its doorstep.<\/p>\n
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Downer was
\nplaying politics ahead of the election.<\/p>\n
Rudd said Labor's policy had two key points that had been on
\nthe record for six months -- it wants an agreement to be
\nfinalized within three to five years, rather than the
\ngovernment's open-ended approach, and it wants international law,
\nincluding the United Nations' law of the sea, to be considered.<\/p>\n
In March 2002, Australia withdrew from the International
\nTribunal for the Law of the Sea before the dispute reached the
\narbiter.<\/p>\n
\"These were two clearly articulated differences and six months
\nlater Alexander Downer decides to make a political case out of
\nit,\" Rudd said.<\/p>",
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