Craig Skehan – The Indonesian Government has hit back at foreign critics of the upsurge in violence in East Timor, arguing it does not need outside pressure over its handing of Monday's ballot on self-determination in the territory.

The Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, expressed regret over yesterday's violence, but he rejected calls for international peacekeepers to be sent to the territory.

And a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the fighting in Dili was "not major" and that Jakarta did not need foreign advice on how to maintain security in East Timor before the ballot.

The spokesman was commenting on a statement by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, that the world was watching events in East Timor and that Indonesia's reputation depended on the outcome of the vote. Mr Howard said he would be contacting the Indonesian President, Dr B.J. Habibie, over the weekend to press Australia's concerns.

But a senior Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Sulaiman Abdulmanan, told The Age: "We don't need international pressure. We have already decided ourselves to solve this problem."

He said Indonesian authorities were working resolutely to implement the terms of an agreement with the United Nations for conducting the ballot.

Mr Sulaiman rejected a call by the imprisoned pro-independence leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao for the dispatch of armed UN peacekeepers to East Timor as a result of yesterday's clashes.

"Nothing has changed and I think our position has already been made very clear on a peacekeeping force," Mr Sulaiman said. "There were some clashes yesterday, but in the history of East Timor they were not major. Do you think there could be a peacekeeping force brought in now? Do you think there is time? I don't think so. The situation is not as bad as many other part of the world."

Mr Sulaiman called for greater balance in media reporting on East Timor and for journalists not to exaggerate the level of violence. "It is not only the integration side [causing problems], it is the pro-independence groups as well making provocations," he said.

Mr Alatas said he was confident that order would be restored in Dili. "We regret the incidents of yesterday," he told Reuters. Mr Alatas said that Mr Gusmao's planned release on 15 September was contingent on the result of Monday's ballot being known several days earlier.