Richard Waddington, Lisbon – East Timor's traditionally fractious resistance movements have united to elect jailed guerrilla chief Xanana Gusmao as leader of a new single front against Indonesian rule of the Pacific territory.

At a historic four-day convention that ended in the early hours of Monday, the resistance also chose a political committee and drew up a draft charter for the eventual independence of the former Portuguese colony.

"It is without doubt an extraordinary step in the story of the East Timor resistance," said Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta.

Ramos-Horta was elected one of two vice-presidents of the political commission of the newly formed National Council for the Timorese Resistance, the umbrella organisation that will group all the various East Timorese factions.

Ramos-Horta, who in 1996 was awarded the Nobel prize along with the Roman Catholic bishop of Dili, Carlos Belo, became the Council's senior official outside the territory.

Gusmao has been in jail in Jakarta since 1992. A second vice-president was also elected to the committee, but his name was kept secret as he is still living and active within the Jakarta-held territory.

The meeting of about 200 delegates at a hotel at Peniche, a port town just north of Lisbon, marked the first time that major resistance groups had agreed to a single political formation.

Portugal, which is still regarded by the United Nations as the territory's administering power, has often said that lack of unity amongst the resistance groups has hampered the finding of a diplomatic solution.

"We are (now) going to speak with one voice. Let Indonesia hear, hear the voice of the people of Timor who are at one in asking for self-determination and independence," said Jose Luis Guterres, a leader of one of the principal East Timorese factions, Fretilin.

Lisbon backs the resistance groups' demand for a referendum in which the East Timorese would be allowed to decide their future.

But Jakarta rejects any such vote, saying that the East Timorese at the time welcomed becoming part of Indonesia.