Paul Daley, Canberra – Paul Keating has launched another attack on John Howard's handling of the East Timor crisis, repeating his allegation that the Prime Minister is directly responsible for the bloodshed in the newly independent state.

Mr Keating last night blamed Mr Howard for the East Timor carnage because he said Mr Howard urged an "interim" Indonesian President, Dr B. J. Habibie, to settle the province's future when there had been no agreement for troops to oversee a people's ballot. Mr Keating's comments are likely to cause acute embarrassment for some of his Labor Party colleagues, including the Opposition Leader, Mr Kim Beazley, who have specifically said Mr Howard was not responsible for the carnage in East Timor.

Mr Howard's spokesman last night rejected Mr Keating's comments, saying: "It is clear from his remarks in the past few days that if Mr Keating had been the prime minister, he would not have helped the East Timorese. He would have left them to their fate. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, should repudiate Mr Keating's remarks."

Mr Keating, whose Labor Government was resoundingly defeated in 1996, told the SBS Dateline program last night that the outcome in East Timor might have been different if he had still been Prime Minister last year. Mr Keating said that unlike Mr Howard – who urged President Habibie to finalise East Timor's future status – he would have waited until President Abdurrahman Wahid was in power.

The former Prime Minister said only then would he have supported a policy of autonomy and economic development for East Timor. "Had Mr Howard waited until President Wahid was installed, he may have followed the policy of [East Timor's Roman Catholic leader] Archbishop [Carlos] Belo, which was that there should be 10 years of autonomy to give time for the integrationists and independence group to heal their differences," Mr Keating said.

"Now it's a society destroyed. Writing an incoherent letter to an interim President who had no authority to make this decision, and letting it happen without peace-makers was an act of irresponsibility by John Howard. Habibie made a decision on an issue put to him by John Howard – the result was slaughter."

Senior Labor figures who supported the Australian-led InterFET deployment last year, were forced to distance themselves from Mr Keating when he first made his allegations about Mr Howard late last year.