John Roberts – The Australian and East Timorese governments agreed on April 29 to a new arrangement on the division of royalties from oil and gas projects in the Timor Sea.

Tim Boreham and Karen Brown – East Timor will have to wait at least a decade to see any economic benefit from the Greater Sunrise gas field, with the $5 billion project slipping down the list of operator Woodside Petroleum's priorities.

HT Lee – The weekend media faithfully reported the foreign minister's announcement on Friday that last week's Timor Sea talks in Sydney with East Timor had finished successfully. But Alexander Downer's proclamation might be premature.

Seth Mydans – Withdrawing in humiliation in 1999 from the land they had occupied for 24 years, Indonesian soldiers scrawled angry graffiti that warned of poverty and hunger ahead. One of them: "A free East Timor will eat stones."

As they departed, they and the local militias they controlled did everything they could to make their words come true.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign today accused the Australian Government of trying to force East Timor into another shabby deal that fell well short of East Timor's legal entitlements, amid reports that in principal agreement had been reached at this week's bilateral negotiations.

Doubts have been raised over whether Australia and East Timor have reached an agreement to carve up multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri denied a report Friday that Dili and Canberra had reached a tentative agreement on the sharing of Timor Sea oil and natural gas revenues, labeling the Australian media report an "absolute lie".

Australia and East Timor completed the latest, and possibly last, round of talks between officials on the split of royalties from oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.

Marian Wilkinson – A long-awaited controversial report on the Defence Intelligence Organisation outlining how officials cut off critical intelligence to Australian troops in East Timor is expected to be released soon by the Defence Minister, Robert Hill.

Maritime boundary negotiations between Australia and East Timor resume tomorrow with representatives from the two governments meeting in Sydney to focus on crucial details of a proposed temporary resource sharing deal.

Dili – An East Timor court sentenced two militiamen Thursday to nine years in jail for taking part in a church massacre and other killings during the country's bloody break from Indonesian rule in 1999.

Seth Mydans, Dili – East Timor After ducking and dodging for more than five years, it appears that the Indonesian officers responsible for the devastation of East Timor in 1999 have reached safe ground and will avoid prosecution under a new agreement signed by the leaders of both countries.

Vannessa Hearman – On April 29, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle met with local East Timorese in Darwin and condemned the "resource-sharing" deal offered to the Timorese by the federal Coalition government as "manifestly unfair". She said that the deal currently offered to the Timorese would "rob East Timor of at least $40 billion in revenue".

Putrajaya (Malaysia) – East Timor will wait patiently – even if takes 20 years – for Indonesian military and militia members to be tried for human rights abuses during the country's bloody break from Indonesia in 1999, its foreign minister said onTuesday.

Helen Hill – On Wednesday in Brisbane, East Timorese and Australian negotiators will again meet to debate rights to the taxation revenues in the Timor Sea.

To most Timorese, this is about determining permanent maritime boundaries with Australia, which they never had and which they regard as their right and part of self-determination.

HT Lee – The next round of talks between East Timor and Australia over the Timor Sea oil and gas riches begins on Wednesday in Sydney – just in time to be buried in the post-budget avalanche. Foreign Minister Lord Downer hopes the talks will tie up the loose ends to the creative solutions proposed by his East Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta.

Rosliwaty Ramly, Putrajaya – Timor Leste is one of the world's least developed countries whereby the majority of its women are illiterate, uneducated subsistence farmers who are marginalised in the social, cultural, economic and political sectors, according its country report.

Denpasar – The Indonesian army is to form a special battalion to guard the country's 240-km-long land border with East Timor or Timor Leste in East Nusatenggara, a spokesman said.

Dili – Traffic moved freely through the center of the East Timorese capital Monday for the first time in nearly three weeks, following the signing of an accord between the government and the Catholic Church that put an end to non-stop, church-sponsored demonstrations.

Marilyn Rodrigues – Catholic advocates for East Timorese asylum seekers are shocked and disappointed that some have had their residency applications rejected on unnamed "serious character grounds".

More than 1400 East Timorese asylum seekers who came to Australia in the early to mid 1990s have been given permanent residency.

Amended versions of Australian businessman Ian Melrose's previously refused Timor Sea TV ads have been resubmitted to the Commercial Advisory Division (CAD) of Free TV Australia and are scheduled to air nationally on Monday evening on networks Seven, Nine and SBS.

Marilyn Rodrigues – Asylum seeker Sereneu (Simon) Pereira hated to tell his "friends and mothers" at St Anne's Nursing Home, Hunters Hill, that he faces having to leave them and go back to East Timor.

Mike Carlton – The mindless cruelties and the rank stupidity of this country's immigration policies grow more disgusting with each passing week.

United Nations – Allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN staff more than doubled last year, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said in a report.

There were 121 allegations in 2004 compared to the 53 in 2003, Annan said in a report to the UN general assembly.

Pip Hinman, Sydney – Paddy Keneally, a former wharfie and Australian commander in East Timor, condemned the Coalition government for stealing Timor's oil at a rally in Martin Place on April 26. The same day, talks resumed in Dili between Timorese and Australian authorities over the disputed oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – As talks between East Timor and Australia re-commenced in Dili, the Timor Sea Justice Campaign (TSJC) was notified on April 27 that its latest television commercials were again refused broadcast by TV stations.

Sibylle Kaczorek – As the Australian government continues its attempted theft of Timorese oil, solidarity from Australians with the Timorese becomes more important than ever. At Easter, Tomas Freitas, a spokesperson from the East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Development, was a guest at the third Asia-Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney.

Mark Dodd – Armed East Timorese police were last night poised to break up a huge church-backed anti-government protest in Dili, the most serious challenge yet to the authority of the fledgling state.

Police and security forces yesterday sealed off parts of the city, erecting razor-wire cordons around the main government offices and parliament buildings in central Dili.

Jon Lamb – Three days of negotiations over the disputed maritime boundary between East Timor and Australia concluded in Dili on April 29.

Sarah Stephen – On April 26, 50 East Timorese asylum seekers were hand delivered letters rejecting their applications for refugee status in Australia, and given 28 days to leave the country. The immigration department (DIMIA) is offering individuals $2000 each or up to $10,000 a family, and a one-way ticket to Dili.

Dili – Amid signs in recent days of an emerging settlement to church protests against the East Timor government, leading Catholic clergymen made new demands Wednesday on the Dili executive including a call for a reconsideration of plans to relax the country's abortion laws.

Dili – The East Timorese capital braced Tuesday for the possibility of clashes between police and anti-government Catholic demonstrators, but a police deadline for the end of street protests ran down without any confrontation.

Canberra – Australia has managed to out-wait a cash strapped East Timor in reaching agreement on lucrative Timor Sea oil and gas revenues, US-based strategic thinktank Stratfor says.

In an analysis of the deal which is set to be finalised in Brisbane on May 11, Stratfor said Dili was always likely to cave in.

Paulo Gorjao – In April 2004, in his progress report regarding the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET), the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, recommended maintaining it for one more year. In May, the UN Security Council did so, but made it quite clear that this was the last extension.

Presented by Fran Kelly

The failure to resolve the differences between Australia and East Timor over the gas reserves has delayed large-scale developments like the natural gas field known as Greater Sunrise.

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

Elizabeth Jackson: A dispute between the church and state in East Timor has escalated, with fresh calls from Catholic leaders for the Government to resign.

Protesters have been demonstrating in the capital Dili for almost two weeks, upset over plans to change religious education in schools in the majority Catholic country.

Women and children in East Timor will continue to suffer in poverty unless the nation is able to determine its own wealth, East Timor's first lady Australian-born Kirsty Sword Gusmao said.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign today welcomed signs that the Australian Government was taking on board public pressure to give East Timor a fair go and approach the ongoing negotiations in a more cooperative manner.

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle was in Darwin today to meet with local East Timorese and join the call for a just outcome from the Timor Sea boundary talks due to conclude in Dili today.

A new UN mission for Timor Leste but what of the future of the serious crimes process?

The United Nations will stay in East Timor (Timor Leste) for another year under a new political mission that will significantly reduce the UN troop presence there.

The Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that will send 45 civilian advisers, 75 police advisers and up to 10 human rights officers to the developing island country until May 2006.

The latest TV ads about the Timor Sea dispute, financed by Australian businessman Ian Melrose, have been refused approval by the Commercials Advice Division (CAD) of Free TV Australia.

The ads feature World War Two veterans, who fought in East Timor, attacking John Howard over his Government's unilateral depletion of gas and oil fields in the Timor Sea.

Australia and East Timor appear to remain at loggerheads over multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, with no resolution announced at the end of three days of talks.

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer maintained Australia was not ripping off East Timor over the joint oil treaty and said the federal government wanted to help its tiny neighbour.

The commercial television networks have refused to screen advertisements lambasting the federal government over Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations, East Timor advocates said today.

The ads, bankrolled by Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose, depict World War II diggers verbally attacking Prime Minister John Howard over the talks with Australia's tiny northern neighbour.

Lisbon – East Timor's government and the nation's powerful Roman Catholic Church have settled a dispute over an end to compulsory religious classes in state schools, East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatari said Thursday.

Malcolm Brown – Fifty East Timorese who came to Australia 10 years ago or more as refugees, settled in the country and sent their children to school, have now been told they are no longer wanted here – and have just 28 days to get out.

Jon Lamb – A series of rallies organised by the Catholic Church in East Timor is another sign of the simmering discontent and frustration held by many East Timorese.

Reporter: Tony Jones

Tony Jones: Sister Susan Connolly is one of Australia's best-known and longest-serving advocates for the East Timorese people. She's the Assistant Director of the Mary MacKillop Institute for East Timor Studies in Sydney and she joins us now. Thank you for joining us.

Sr Connolly: Thank you, Tony.

Tom Allard – Australia and East Timor are close to a historic agreement on sharing the revenue from the lucrative gas and oil fields in the Timor Gap after a multibillion-dollar offer by Australia to help develop the fledgling nation.

Max Lane, Sydney – On April 26, a new round of negotiations will start between the Australian and East Timorese governments over the maritime boundary between the two countries.