E. Timor to use dollar as its official currency

E. Timor to use dollar as its official currency

DILI, East Timor (AP): The U.S. dollar is to become East Timor's official currency while it prepares for eventual self- government, members of the devastated territory's main independence group said on Monday.

Officials of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, or CNRT, said the decision would be announced later Monday by the International Monetary Fund and the UN, which is administrating East Timor.

The officials said the decision to use dollars was made in consultation with their group. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

East Timor broke away from Indonesia last year after a UN- supervised ballot Aug. 30 that triggered a bloody backlash by anti-independence militiamen. International peacekeepers restored order in September.

As normalcy slowly returns, East Timor's people have been using the Indonesian rupiah and the U.S. dollar along with the Australian dollar, introduced by the Australian-led peacekeeping force, and the Portuguese escudo, the currency of East Timor's former colonial master.

Separately, the head of the UN authority in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has approved a regulation setting up a central payments office to regulate East Timor's financial and banking system, UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said Monday.

"The central payments office, which is to ultimately become East Timor's central bank, is an institution crucial to efficient payments and a sound banking system in East Timor," he said.