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