Lisbon – Indonesia's Foreign Minister Ali Alatas nomination to the country's legislative elections next May as an East Timor representative does not make him a (East) Timorese, the Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama has said.

Gama told a press conference on Thursday that the nomination "will not make FM Ali Alatas a (East) Timorese and, surely, will not give East Timor more rights".

"Elections in dictatorships have little value and in the case of East Timor even less value, being organized by anti-East Timorese", Gama added.

Alatas is the fifth in the eight-candidate list for East Timor made up of two Indonesians and six East Timorese and led by current president of local parliament, Antonio Freitas Parada.

The spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Ali Alatas was a "very appropriate" representative of East Timor in the Indonesian parliament since he "speaks of East Timor, knows well the situation in the territory and represents East Timor at the international scene. He is almost a (East) Timorese".

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it one year later but the United Nations still regards Portugal as the territorys administering power. Lusa/Fim