Dili – UN peacekeepers in East Timor are now facing a well trained and disciplined anti-independence militia force that continues to use Indonesian-West Timor as a safe haven, Australia's visiting defense minister said Friday.

John Moore, who made a six-hour visit to East Timor, defended a decision to send four high-tech, Australian Black Hawk helicopters to guard East Timor's border with Indonesia saying the aircraft are needed to help secure the region from the heightened threat. "Clearly the militia today is better trained, better disciplined and are acting more coordinated than ever before," he said.

Moore called on Indonesia's government to fulfill its promise to empty dozens of refugee camps in West Timor, which have been used as training and recruitment grounds by militia gangs. "The instability on the border is primarily due to a large number still in the refugee camps and it's up to the Indonesian government to move these people along," he said.

In the past few weeks, there have been several incursions across the border by armed militia fighters. On July 24, New Zealand army Pvt. Leonard William Manning was killed in a fire fight with 10 suspected pro-Indonesian militiamen, who had crossed into UN-administered East Timor from West Timor. On Wednesday, a squad of Australian soldiers shot two suspected militiamen to death in a gun battle in the same area.

The peacekeepers landed in East Timor in September to end an outbreak of violence by pro-Jakarta militia opposed to the territory's vote for independence from Indonesia the previous month.

Moore said Australia had made the decision to increase it's military presence along the border weeks before Manning was killed. The four Black Hawk helicopters are expected to arrive in East Timor at the weekend and will be based in the border town of Balibo, 110 kilometers southwest of Dili.