Portuguese premier seeks meeting with VP Habibie

Portuguese premier seeks meeting with VP Habibie

LISBON, Portugal (AP): Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has proposed meeting with Indonesian Vice President B.J. Habibie this week to discuss the thorny subject of East Timor, a government official.

"Our interest is to have this meeting on the highest level," Ana Paula Zacarias, spokeswoman for the Portuguese Foreign Ministry, told the Associated Press Wednesday.

Guterres met with Indonesian President Soeharto two years ago in Bangkok and this is a "renewed proposal for a second round of negotiations", Zacarias said.

Guterres has proposed meeting during the Asia-Europe Meeting being held in London this week.

"So far we have no confirmation if the meeting is going to take place," Zacarias said.

The former Portuguese colony integrated into Indonesia in 1976, but the United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the administrative authority in East Timor.

Timorese separatist leader Jose Ramos-Horta met with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in London on Monday and "received assurances (from Cook) that he would raise the issue with his Indonesian counterpart" sources close to the self-exiled separatist leader said.

But Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas last week said that East Timor would not be discussed in the meeting because it was an irrelevant issue.

He also said that participants in the meeting knew and accepted this fact.

Alatas further stressed that no meeting had been scheduled with the Portuguese prime minister and that none was likely to occur.