Australia suggests East Timor would not be wise to ask for U.N. intervention

Australia suggests East Timor would not be wise to ask for U.N. intervention in border dispute

Rod McGuirk Associated Press Canberra, Australia

Australia questioned on Wednesday whether East Timor would be wise to invite U.N. intervention in a bitter dispute over US$30 billion in oil and gas royalties.

Negotiations between Canberra and Dili on sharing the royalties and drawing a maritime boundary broke down in October.

Earlier this week, East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said unless Prime Minister John Howard intervenes in the talks, his country would request that the U.N. General Assembly ask the International Court of Justice provide an opinion on where the boundary should be drawn.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday East Timor was free to go to the United Nations.

"Can they do it? Of course they can," Downer told reporters. "Would it be wise for them to do it? Well, that's a judgment they'll have to make themselves."

Ramos Horta accused Australia of blackmailing his impoverished country by making a final offer of $3 billion compensation over 30 years for East Timor agreeing to the boundary that Australia wanted.

bAustralia had previously offered $4.3 billion compensation, he said.

Downer said Ramos Horta's figures were incorrect but declined to make public Australia's version of the negotiations.

East Timor would like the International Court of Justice to decide on its claim that the border should lie midway between the two countries.

But Australia has withdrawn from the court's jurisdiction so that a ruling would not be binding. Australia argues the boundary should lie close to the East Timorese coast off Australia's large underwater continental shelf.

A proposed $5 billion plan to develop the Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor is expected to be scrapped unless the deadlock is resolved this month.