Ramos-Horta urges total review of Timor Gap treaty

Ramos-Horta urges total review of Timor Gap treaty

SYDNEY (AFP): East Timorese leader Jose Ramos-Horta called on Sunday for Australia to waive its rights to millions of dollars in oil royalties under a contentious treaty drawn up with Indonesia.

Ramos-Horta told ABC radio the Timor Gap Treaty, signed between Australia and Indonesia in 1989, should be renegotiated to better serve the people of East Timor.

The treaty was updated this year following East Timor's vote for independence in last year's ballot, splitting equally the royalties from oil and gas operations in the Timor Sea.

But Ramos-Horta said the new nation was entitled to up to 90 percent.

"I believe that Australia is an enormously rich country and I am confident it is prepared to take the initiative itself, so that the East Timorese can benefit much better from the treaty itself," he said.

The Timor Gap took its name after a 1972 seabed border agreement in the Timor Sea between Australia and Indonesia was challenged by Portugese Timor.

Australia sought to have the border follow its continental shelf, while the Portugese insisted it be midway between their coastlines, which would have seen the bulk of the oil and gas reserves fall under Portuguese control.

This all changed after Indonesia occupied East Timor in 1975 and by 1989 Australia and Indonesia had signed a treaty dividing exploitation rights to the seabed.