Megawati Wijaya, Singapore – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will weigh this week in Jakarta whether to bring East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, into the 10-member regional grouping.

Barry Wain – Government officials, analysts and academics continue to debate the merits of admitting Timor Leste this year to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, seemingly unaware that the subject is closed.

John Martinkus – A leaked US diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Lisbon in 2006 details a senior Portuguese intelligence official accusing Australia of fomenting the violence in East Timor that year.

East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao says he is against an Australian proposal to establish a regional refugee centre in his country. "I have never accepted it," he said on the sidelines of a ruling party conference in Dili.

George Quinn – Since 2004 about 300 Cuban doctors, nurses and medical technicians have been working quietly but effectively in East Timor.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has moved to clarify reports he has rejected an Australian bid for an immigration detention centre in his country.

Fairfax Media reported Dr Ramos-Horta had told journalists in his country that East Timor wouldn't agree to the centre.

Lindsay Murdoch – Julia Gillard's proposal to build a refugee centre in East Timor has been rejected by the country's President Jose Ramos-Horta, the only senior political figure in the tiny nation who had left the door open to the plan.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor has rejected a claim that its leaders are failing their mainly impoverished people by blocking development of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field, saying the multibillion-dollar project will go ahead.

The nation has also reaffirmed that it will honour the outcome of stalled and bitter negotiations over the field in the Timor Sea.

Joe Cochrane – To many Indonesians, Timor-Leste is a country redolent with bad dreams, the result of the problematic past when it was the country's 27th province and the traumatic birthing process of the new nation. Joe Cochrane returns to the capital, Dili, to find much has changed and that the neighbors to the west are still a part of the story.

Brian Knowlton, Washington – A frank evaluation by the World Bank's internal auditors of a decade of efforts to help East Timor underscores the challenges facing international organizations attempting to assist struggling nations.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd says East Timor's government has ignored requests for talks on the stalled Sunrise development and that competitors had shown interest in buying the $7 billion project.

Loro Horta – After 400 years of inept Portuguese colonial rule and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation, Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) gained its independence in 2002 following a UN-sponsored referendum.

Lynn Lee – Indonesia is backing Timor Leste's bid to join Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) because excluding it would be "economically unnatural" and "politically destabilising" for the region in the long term, said Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa.

Overview

Zubaidah Nazeer, Dili – Former investment banker Derek Chua traded in his sharp suits for comfortable clothes so that he could cycle to work each morning here in Timor Leste's capital city.

The 33-year-old Singaporean, the finance director of Timor Leste's only general insurance company, first visited the country two years ago.

Karlis Salna – Defence Minister Stephen Smith says a full assessment of a planned withdrawal of Australian troops from East Timor will be made in conjunction with the government in Dili following elections to be held next year.

Clinton Fernandes – In April 2007 I applied to the National Archives of Australia for access to records of the Defence Intelligence Organisation relating to Indonesia and East Timor in 1975.

Karlis Salna – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta has dismissed suggestions Australian forces should remain in the fledgling nation beyond a planned 2012 withdrawal.

Karlis Salna – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta says a plan for a regional processing centre to be built in his country has not been on his agenda for months despite Prime Minister Julia Gillard insisting negotiations have been ongoing.

Rowan Callick – Australia should maintain troops in East Timor beyond their planned withdrawal after next year's elections, says the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The Timor Defence Force would need assistance until 2020, "not least to ensure" it remained focused on defence and not "political activities" and policing, the institute says in a new report.

Adam Gartrell – Australia should maintain a military presence in East Timor as late as 2020, a new report recommends.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says many of the problems that led to Timor's near-collapse in 2006 – and the subsequent Australia-led military intervention – remain potent.

Sara Everingham and staff – East Timor's deputy prime minister has confirmed his country has rejected Australia's proposal to establish a refugee processing centre on Timor's soil.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says he does not accept reports East Timor is not in favour of housing a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

Matt Brown – More cold water has been poured on plans to establish an asylum seeker processing centre in East Timor, with the UN refugee agency saying the country has not approached it about the idea.

Tom Allard and Kirsty Needham – East Timor has reaffirmed its hostility to a refugee processing centre on its territory, even as the Gillard government insists it will still proceed with negotiations with the fledgling country over a plan labelled an embarrassing farce by the opposition.

Karlis Salna – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has given his strongest indication yet that he is opposed to the idea of a refugee processing centre being built on his country's soil.

Damien Kingsbury – The government's East Timor asylum seeker solution is dying a death of a thousand cuts. It is a slow and painful process and unedifying to watch it writhe in agony. The plan has not yet been killed outright, but only an unreconstructed optimist would now suggest its fate is other than sealed.

Brian Padden – Indonesia's unreserved support for East Timor's membership to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations reinforces the growing ties between two countries that were on opposite sides of a struggle for independence, a little more than a decade ago. Economic interests, democratic development and geopolitical realities have helped both countries overcome the past.

Karlis Salna – Prime Minister Julia Gillard plans to pursue an agreement with East Timor over her proposal for a regional refugee processing centre despite the fledgling nation all but rejecting the idea.

Tom Allard and Kirsty Needham – East Timor has dismissed Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's proposal for a refugee processing centre on its soil on the eve of a multinational summit on people smuggling.

Dylan Welch – The veil of secrecy obscuring what Australia knew about Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor will be pulled back a little, after a successful court challenge against the censorship of secret intelligence briefings.

Karlis Salna – East Timor remains open to discussing Australia's plan for a regional refugee processing centre to be built on its territory but would like to delay the negotiations.

Jeremy Thompson – Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says an agreement for an offshore immigration centre on East Timor will not be reached at a regional meeting in Bali this week.

Dili – United Nations police have returned full control of East Timor to the national force, more than four years after bloody clashes threatened to push the country into civil war.

The federal government will attempt to rally support for a regional asylum seeker processing centre in East Timor during a meeting in Bali this week.

But details of the proposed centre are unlikely to be nutted out. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen will use the March 29-30 meeting in Bali to garner support for a centre on East Timor.

Karlis Salna – Indonesia says the Bali Process remains the best forum for achieving a regional agreement on how best to deal with asylum seekers.

As pressure mounts on Prime Minister Julia Gillard over her asylum seeker policy, Indonesia on Tuesday affirmed it wanted a solution that deals with the issue in terms of the countries of origin, transit and destination.

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia has agreed to step up cooperation in solving border problems with East Timor, its former territory, an Indonesian presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia and East Timor on Tuesday agreed to step up cooperation in solving border problems, said an Indonesian presidential spokesman.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has discussed the so-called East Timor solution with Indonesian officials as Australia prepares to make its case for the plan at the Bali Process meeting in less than two weeks.

A treaty between Australia and East Timor covering the Greater Sunrise liquefied natural gas development is at risk, according to a report in The Australian, with East Timor threatening to cancel the treaty unless the Woodside Petroleum Ltd-led joint venture agrees to local processing.

The young nation's application to join Asean should be approved despite the problems it may cause to the grouping's integration plan

Finally East Timor has officially applied to become the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) – in the words of Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa "as soon as possible".

Australia sees no need to intervene in the dispute between oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd and East Timor over how to develop the vast Greater Sunrise gas field, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson told Reuters.

"These matters get resolved over time,' Mr Ferguson said in an interview.

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – The government has said that Indonesia would support Timor Leste's full membership in ASEAN – despite opposition from other countries.

Experts have agreed with the move, saying admitting Timor Leste into the bloc would reflect ASEAN's maturity and show that ASEAN belongs to all Southeast Asian nations, despite economic differences.

Jakarta, Indonesia – East Timor has applied for a membership in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations. Its application was submitted Friday by East Timor's foreign minister.

Canberra – Malaysia's prime minister said Thursday he remained undecided on supporting Australia's plan to make East Timor a regional hub for processing asylum seekers, adding that cost as well as the wishes of the East Timorese would be major factors in his final decision.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono voiced support Thursday for East Timor's bid to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, his spokesman said.

"The President has asserted that Indonesia will make diplomatic efforts and ensure that at the right time, East Timor can become a member of ASEAN," presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.

Karlis Salna – East Timor's main opposition party has reaffirmed its objections to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's regional refugee processing centre plan, vowing to make it a key issue at possible elections later this year.

Adam Gartrell – Malaysia's support for Prime Minister Julia Gillard's proposed East Timor asylum seeker processing centre could hinge on who's expected to pay for it.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday said his government would be as cooperative as possible in working with Australia and the region to combat people smuggling.