Jakarta – East Timor urged the United Nations on Wednesday not to be hasty in withdrawing its peacekeeping forces from the fledgling nation, after the world body said it was considering further cutbacks to the mission.

New York – As the United Nations readies next year's withdrawal of its mission to East Timor, Dili is making significant progress towards running its own affairs, UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan says in a new report debated by the Security Council on Tuesday.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – After a month in hiding, the guerilla hero known as L-7 has made a triumphal return to the East Timorese capital and supported claims that police shot at him and other demonstrators on July 20.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has no comment to make on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report to the UN Security Council in which he expressed dissapointment about the outcome of Indonesian court trials of human right violations in East Timor in 1999, a spokesman said. .

New York – United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed dissatisfaction over the result of the trials conducted by Indonesia's ad-hoc court for human rights violations in East Timor.

Vannessa Hearman – Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, the Melbourne-born wife of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao and chairperson of the Alola Foundation for women and children of East Timor, has condemned the stance taken by the Howard government on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations.

Vannessa Hearman – On August 11, East Timorese foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta and Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer agreed on a "framework" for a Timor Sea agreement. According to Downer, an agreement could be reached by Christmas.

Jon Lamb – On August 5, the ad hoc human rights court in Indonesia accepted an appeal, and acquitted four generals of any involvement in the killing of at least 1500 East Timorese during the 1999 terror campaign that was orchestrated by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).

Four martial arts gangs, armed with machetes and swords, fought pitched battles in the streets of East Timor over the weekend, leaving a police commander dead and dozens of houses burned to the ground, police said Monday.

Denpasar – The East Timorese government has stated its commitment to prevent the establishment of an UN Expert Commission, aimed at investigating human rights violations in East Timor following the 1999 ballot.

A sensible, if imperfect, compromise appears to have retrieved relations with East Timor.

The people of East Timor are under no illusions about how much they owe Australia for its help in winning independence from Indonesia. So when East Timor recently accused Australia of bullying and stealing oil revenue this signalled a serious dispute.

Timothy Mapes and Patrick Barta, Jakarta – Australia and East Timor have worked out the broad outlines of a possible compromise that could help end a bruising two-year dispute over control of giant oil and natural-gas fields in the Timor Sea, officials familiar with the talks said.

US-based rights groups called for a UN inquiry to bring to justice Indonesian security officers let off the hook for atrocities during East Timor's 1999 violence-marred independence vote.

Dan Eaton, Jakarta – East Timor urged its friends on Monday not to push for a U.N tribunal for Indonesian forces accused of abuses during its bloody 1999 vote for independence, saying such a court would not help the fledgling state.

David Gollust, State Department – The United States Monday expressed dismay over an Indonesian appeals court ruling overturning convictions of security officials for crimes against humanity in the 1999 violence in East Timor. The State Department called the Indonesian legal process "seriously flawed."

Andrew Burrell, Jakarta – The only four Indonesians found guilty of the wave of killings and destruction in East Timor in 1999 have all had their convictions and jail terms overturned by a Jakarta appeals court.

The High Court verdict almost certainly means that no Indonesian will ever be punished for the East Timor atrocities that shocked the world five years ago.

New York – US-based rights groups called for a UN inquiry to bring to justice Indonesian security officers let off the hook for atrocities during East Timor's 1999 violence-marred independence vote.

Jakarta – Foreign rights groups Saturday demanded the establishment of an international tribunal to punish Indonesian security officers implicated in the 1999 violence in East Timor after an appeals court overturned four earlier convictions.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – A UN prosecutor and human rights groups called for international action yesterday after an Indonesian appeal court quashed the four outstanding convictions of members of the country's security forces prosecuted for their alleged involvement in violence in East Timor in 1999.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Three Indonesian soldiers and a police officer have won their appeals against convictions for gross human rights abuses in East Timor, in a decision that means all Indonesian security force personnel have now been cleared of the violence that resulted in the deaths of about 1600 people.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – "I saw seven police firing their pistols at L-7, a volley of bullets directed at his legs. It would be surprising if he hadn't been hit."

Evelyn Rusli, Jakarta – An Indonesian appeals court has overturned the convictions of three army officers and one policeman for crimes against humanity during violence in 1999 over East Timor's independence that left some 1,500 people dead.

Melbourne – East Timor's first lady today accused the federal government of making the Timor Sea oil negotiations a political football.

Melbourne-born Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, the wife of East Timorese president Xanana Gusmao, was in Melbourne today to call on the Australian public to lobby for a fairer deal for East Timor in the maritime boundary negotiations.

East Timor's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao has called on the Alkatiri government to listen to the needs and demands of rebel Cornelio Gama or L-7. The disgruntled war veteran recently lead a demonstration in Dili in which 26 people were arrested after riot police fired tear gas to break up the protest

Presenter/Interviewer: Claudette Werden

Oil wealth was always expected to play an important role in rebuilding East Timor after independence. Two years on, thanks to the stubbornness of neighbouring Australia, there is still much uncertainty over whether the bulk of that wealth will ever be made available to the government of the struggling new country.

Jon Lamb – Australian Labor Party federal leader Mark Latham's comments on July 22 that a government led by him would start new negotiations with East Timor over the maritime boundary in the Timor Sea has provoked a threat from Prime Minister John Howard's government to cancel the next round of talks between Canberra and Dili scheduled for September.

Sydney – The Australian-born first lady of East Timor, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, Monday appealed to Canberra not to force her country beg for a "fair share" of the Timor Sea oil and gas reserves.

Brad Howarth – The East Timorese and Australian Governments have agreed to proceed with negotiations over the Timor Sea oil and gas fields without discussing permanent seabed boundaries.

Nigel Wilson – The Howard Government has told East Timor it will get no revenue from the Bayu Undan and Greater Sunrise gas fields if it pursues its claim for a maritime boundary set at the median point between the two countries.

Rowan Callick – The Timor gap is getting wider. And both Australia and East Timor are set to delay or lose substantial income as a result.

Australia's row with East Timor over the oil- and gas-rich sea bed between the countries has inevitably turned into a domestic debate, too, as the election approaches, clouding the issues.

Darwin – Federal and state mining ministers have shot down a proposal to include East Timor in their talks on the exploitation of oil and gas resources.

Sarah Boyd – The United Nation's special representative in East Timor, Sukehiro Hasekawa, has been thinking about the O J Simpson trial. "The relatives of the victim and those of the accused needed to look each other in the eye and acknowledge what actually happened. That trial went on for a year and cost a lot of money, but perhaps they never did that."

Dennis Shanahan and Nigel Wilson – Mark Latham's pledge to start new boundary talks with East Timor is threatening the tiny country's economic future, with owners of a $5 billion gas project saying they will stop development plans if present arrangements are not honoured.

Melbourne – Australia has warned that it may suspend the next round of negotiations with East Timor on a maritime border in the resource rich Timor Sea that will decide the ownership of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas.

Australia and East Timor held talks in April and are scheduled to meet again in September.

IN their testy negotiations over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, the Australian and East Timorese sides have been driven solely by their respective national interests. This is good and proper. If Australia wants to provide assistance to East Timor, it should do so through the transparent mechanism of aid, not by giving way on maritime boundaries and ceding bits of Australia.

Canberra – The government threatened Sunday to suspend the second round of talks with East Timor over a maritime boundary between the two neighbors after the opposition called for a fresh start to negotiations on how seabed oil and gas riches will be shared.

Sydney – Australia's foreign minister has threatened to suspend talks with East Timor on disputed multi-billion-dollar Timor Sea gas and oil fields, saying the opposition Labor Party had politicised the issue.

The Federal Opposition says it is the Government that is playing politics over Australia's negotiations with East Timor over the boundaries in the Timor Sea, which determine control over oil and gas reserves.

Opposition Leader Mark Latham says it appears there has been bad blood in the negotiations so far and if Labor is elected, it would restart the talks.

Steve Lewis and Nigel Wilson – The Howard Government is threatening to suspend talks with East Timor over control of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea until after the election, following remarks by Mark Latham that a Labor government would consider restarting negotiations.

Canberra – East Timor's economic future would be given more weight in talks over oil and gas royalties if Labor was elected, Opposition Leader Mark Latham said today.

Mark Dodd, Darwin – Anti-government demonstrations this week in East Timor's capital involving former guerrilla fighters indicate a growing frustration among veterans who feel robbed of their independence dividend in a fledgling nation with a profoundly weak economy and high unemployment.

Michelle Grattan, Canberra – The Flood report has rejected an allegation that a pro-Jakarta lobby within the Defence Intelligence Organisation distorted intelligence estimates on East Timor so that the Government got what it wanted to hear.

A riot in the East Timorese capital Dili this week has turned the spotlight on simmering political tensions in the country. Cornelio Gama, a dissident former commander of Falintil who goes by his jungle codename L-7 led about a hundred supporters in a demonstration against the government. The government denies that it's facing a serious challenge.

The Australian Democrats have backed a call for New Zealand to mediate in negotiations between East Timor and Australia over the Timor Sea boundary.

The mediation is expected to determine the seabed boundary, thereby dividing control of an estimated $30 billion in royalties from Timor Sea oil and gas deposits.

Reporter: Tanya Nolan

Tony Eastely: East Timor says that if it can't resolve its differences with Australia over maritime rights it wants New Zealand to step in as a mediator. The idea was floated by the country's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, in a speech he gave in Sydney last night.

Reporter: Nance Haxton

Mark Colvin: The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has strongly rebuffed criticisms and complaints from East Timor over the controversial Sunrise Gas Field negotiations.

Australia – By the medium of our Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, is presenting a very unattractive face to the world, not least our Pacific and South-East Asian neighbours, as it negotiates with East Timor over borders between the two countries, and rights to some of the oil royalties in the disputed areas.

Jakarta – Responding to a letter sent by East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese parliament and East Timorese Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro stating that the former governor of East Timor Abilio Soares was innocent, Indonesian foreign minister Nur Hassan Wirajuda said that no party is entitled to intervene in the legal system of Indonesia.

Dili – Police in East Timor fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse dozens of former freedom fighters demonstrating outside the main government building demanding more reform, eyewitnesses and police said.

There's confusion tonight in Dili as to the whereabouts of East Timor's dissident Falantil guerilla fighter Cornelio Gama, otherwise known as L7.