'Xanana' to meet IMF in Washington<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP): East Timor's independence leader, Xanana
\nGusmao, will meet officials from the World Bank and the
\nInternational Monetary Fund in Washington Wednesday to discuss
\nfuture financial aid for the former Portuguese colony, a World
\nBank official said Friday.<\/p>\n
He will be joined in the talks by Jose Ramos-Horta, another
\nindependence leader and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.<\/p>\n
The bank official said prospective donor countries such as
\nPortugal, Australia, Japan and the United States had also been
\ninvited, as well as the United Nations and the Asian Development
\nBank.<\/p>\n
The \"informal meeting\" would discuss \"joint steps for
\nreconstruction and development in East Timor,\" said Peter
\nStephens, a bank spokesman.<\/p>\n
Gusmao, who has only recently been released from seven years
\nimprisonment in Jakarta, is also scheduled to visit New York next
\nweek to meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.<\/p>\n
In a U.N.-sponsored referendum last month, a large majority of
\nEast Timorese chose in a referendum to break free of 24 years of
\ncontrol by Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Anti-independence militias then waged a campaign of terror in
\nthe province which led to deployment of an international
\npeacekeeping force in the province earlier this week. the
\ndeployment of a multinational peacekeeping force.<\/p>\n
The World Bank and the IMF are expected to help East Timor
\ndevelop national financial and economic institutions when the
\nprovince becomes independent later this year.<\/p>\n
Another leader of the independence movement in East Timor,
\nMario Alkatiri, said in Lisbon Friday that he was preparing to
\nnegotiate with the Portuguese oil group Petrogal over future
\ncooperation with Portugal in producing oil off-shore.<\/p>\n
Alkatiri told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that the Timor
\nNational Resistance Council (TNRC) had instructed him to
\nnegotiate the terms of cooperation between an independent Timor
\nand Petrogal.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese company said Alkatiri had requested a meeting
\nwith its president Manuel Ferreira de Oliveira.<\/p>",
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