Sydney – Australia and East Timor pledged to continue their close friendship Monday during East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao's first official visit abroad since his country became independent on May 20.

Gusmao, who arrived in Canberra on Sunday for a five-day visit to Australia, held talks there Monday morning with Prime Minister John Howard, who reiterated Australia's friendship with and commitment to the people of East Timor.

"I know the path ahead will have a lot of difficulties, but I know the friendship and support of the Australian government and the Australian people will be a constant element of East Timor's journey along that path," Howard said.

"Australians will for years into the future admire greatly the struggle of your people towards achieving independence and we certainly rejoice in the achievement of that independence and commit ourselves to a firm friendship in the years ahead," he said.

Gusmao expressed his "profound gratitude for all the help that we have received [from Australia] ever since the beginning of the transitional period" prior to May 20. He added that he greatly appreciated "the commitment of the Australian government to continue to help us in this difficult stage of our history."

Gusmao was to travel later Monday to Sydney for two days of meetings with local politicians and East Timorese community leaders before departing for Dili on Thursday morning.