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But Australia has withdrawn from the court's jurisdiction so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.