Jakarta – Two UN agencies on Saturday pulled most of their foreign staff out of the West Timor border town of Atambua, a day after pro-Jakarta militia encircled and threatened their offices, UN officials said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) office in Kupang confirmed that most of its foreign staff members had left Atambua, but declined to call it an evacuation.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy said in Geneva that its Atambu office had been "under siege by at least 50 machete-wielding Aitarak militia".

"Six staff remained trapped inside the building for several hours before the Indonesian army intervened to disperse the crowd," he said. Aitarak was involved in attacks in East Timor last year.

Earlier on Friday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Indonesia to stop militiamen infiltrating into East Timor after a Nepalese United Nations peacekeeper was killed in a firefight there.

In a statement, he said he was "concerned over the increase in activities by armed personnel" in parts of the territory close to the Indonesian province of West Timor.