Sydney – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was accused Tuesday of deceit after being forced to admit he was wrong to deny that US officials had suggested Australian participation in a peacekeeping force for East Timor.

Downer's admission followed an opposition question in parliament on Monday. He had replied he was unaware of any requests from the United States for Australia to take part in peace enforcement in East Timor.

Hours later he told parliament he had been informed by his department that US military officials had asked "hypothetically" about Australia's willingness to participate during a meeting of officials in June.

Australian military officials had given a non-committal response to the question, Downer said, adding that it did not represent a formal US request nor reflect US policy and the matter had not been raised again.

It was the second time in a day Downer had been caught out over Australian policy towards East Timor before a UN-brokered ballot to decide the future of the former Portuguese colony, seized by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed as a province the following year.

Timorese independence supporters have suffered persistent intimidation and UN officials have faced numerous attacks at the hands of pro-Indonesian militia in the run up to the ballot.

Downer denied 10 days ago that a senior US official told Australian foreign affairs department head Ashton Calvert he believed a full-scale peacekeeping operation would be necessary in East Timor and that Australia's attitude was "essentially defeatist".

But Downer was forced Monday to concede that US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Stanley Roth had expressed "a personal view" to Calvert that a full-scale peacekeeping operation would be an unavoidable aspect of the transition to independence.

A leaked copy of a foreign affairs record of the talks had revealed "one area of difference" over the approach to security in the disputed territory, Downer said. Roth had suggested Australia's policy of keeping peacekeeping at arms' length was essentially defeatist, the document said.

Labor opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said documentation showed Downer's propositions were demonstrably untruthful. "What we have seen is a complete inability on the part of the Foreign Minister to tell the truth," Brereton told ABC radio.

"The Foreign Minister again and again has been completely deceitful in his response to questions on differences between the United States and Australia in respect of East Timor policy."

He said Australia's position that there should not be peacekeepers in Timor after the independence ballot on August 30 could spell disaster.