More than 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home from Indonesia during October, the UN High Commission for Refugees said Monday in Dili, underlining it was the biggest one-month influx since March of last year.

UNHCR official Iain Hall told Lusa there were signs the repatriation process could increase significantly by year4s end.

East Timor4s peaceful August elections and the "reconciliation" initiatives undertaken by independence leader Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta, especially with refugees from the Covalima and Ainaro regions, were "bearing fruit", Hall said.

He also noted what he called "the active and creative involvement" of Indonesian officials, including West Timor4s military commander, General Willem da Costa, since Megawati Sukarnoputri assumed Indonesia4s presidency earlier this year.

In one such initiative, the "Jakarta Post" reported Monday that the Indonesian government had begun offering a sack of rice and the equivalent of USD 50 to each refugee family opting to return home.

Jakarta has said it would cease humanitarian aid and disband refugee camps in West Timor by the end of this year.