Dili – The head of the multinational force in East Timor, Major General Peter Cosgrove said Thursday that Indonesia had admitted its forces fired the first shots in a border clash last weekend.

Cosgrove told reporters here that the head of Indonesia's police in Dili, Brigadier J.T. Sitorus had given him the results of a preliminary Indonesian investigation into the incident.

"It is acknowledged that the first shot was fired by TNI/Polri [the armed forces and police], they say not by a militia member," he said.

But Cosgrove said Indonesia was still claiming that Interfet troops crossed over the border from East to West Timor, triggering the incident. "We say that the force was short of the marked East Timor boundary."

Interfet initially said the first shots in the firefight on Sunday were fired by militia members who were in the company of the police and the military.

Cosgrove said that in the heat of the moment his troops "had the impression that those that were firing at them were not in full TNI or full Polri uniforms."

He said he could not confirm the death of an Indonesian policeman in the firing, but said he could accept that happened if Indonesian officials told him so.

The shooting near the border village of Motaain was the first involving troops of the UN-sanctioned International force in East Timor (Interfet) and the Indonesian armed forces. The first Interfet troops arrived in East Timor on September 20.