East Timor formally joined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Tuesday, with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri describing the event in Washington as "an important day for us, a historic day".

He thanked the two institutions for their pivotal help during his country's three-year transition, under UN administration, to independence from Indonesian occupation.

The World Bank announced it was granting Dili USD 5 million to aid poverty-reduction and private sector-development programs. Meantime at home, UN agencies announced that more than 4,000 refugees had returned to East Timor from Indonesia so far this month, including a group of 60 former soldiers in the Indonesian army.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 refugees are thought to remain in Indonesian West Timor of the estimated 250,000 who fled or were deported by pro-Indonesia militias during anti-independence rampages in 1999.