FM offers soothing words for E. Timor

FM offers soothing words for E. Timor

AUSTRALIA: Australia is not trying take advantage of tiny East
Timor in border negotiations with the impoverished half-island
nation that could decide the fate of billions of dollars in oil
and gas reserves, the country's foreign minister said on
Thursday.

The two countries resumed negotiations this week over where to
draw the maritime boundary between them -- a line that will
ultimately decide where up to US$30 billion dollars in oil and
gas revenue will flow.

Some Australians have accused their government of strong-
arming its neighbor in the talks.

"Australia's interest isn't to rip off East Timor," Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer told the Seven Network on Thursday. "I
think they (the East Timorese) understand that, and I think we
are having a good level of negotiation."

Energy companies last year halted plans to tap the Greater
Sunrise gas field -- the largest in the Timor Sea, which divides
Australia's north coast from the tiny island nation -- after the
two sides failed to reach a border settlement.

East Timor, the poorest country in Southeast Asia, wants the
boundary set in the middle of the 600 kilometers of sea between
the countries. But Australia wants to preserve the maritime
boundary it agreed to with Indonesia, which occupied East Timor
from 1975 to 1999.

In some places, that boundary is just 150 kilometers from East
Timor's coast. --AP