Paul Daley, Canberra – American military officials told Australian defence strategists in June that the US would consider deploying up to 15,000 troops to East Timor, if bloodshed dramatically escalated in the troubled Indonesian province.

Specific details of American contingencies for East Timor were revealed to The Age after the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, yesterday told Federal Parliament he was not aware of any US proposal for peace enforcement in East Timor.

A top-level diplomatic source has made it clear to The Age that US military contingency plans for East Timor include a massive deployment of American troops, including marines, for peace enforcement – as distinct from UN peacekeeping.

In June, US military officials in the Pacific told Australian officials they were factoring Darwin into their military plans and sought an agreement to attach Australian military liaison officers to a possible US peace-enforcement mission. Australian officials said that would require consideration by the Federal Government, which rejected the request.

The Age has established that American military officials told Australian counterparts that the US Pacific command was willing to coordinate, as one option, the deployment of 15,000 US troops, including marines from Okinawa in Japan and other nearby units.

The US officials made it clear that this contingency would apply in an extreme circumstance – quickly stopping large-scale violence by Indonesian-backed militias.

They told Australia the peace-enforcement contingency was based on an assumption that the US would operate alone, but that Australia would become involved in UN peacekeeping later.

In a recent TV interview, Mr Downer categorically denied a report in The Sunday Age that Australia had rejected a US request to jointly plan peacekeeping for East Timor, and that the US had told Australia it would consider sending marines.