Canberra – Parliament passed legislation Monday allowing Australia and East Timor to share revenue from a Timor Sea gas and oil field in a deal that a Greens lawmaker said robs one of the world's poorest nations of vital revenue.

Australia will take about 80% and East Timor 20% of royalties from the Greater Sunrise field, which some analysts say could hold A$40 billion in gas and oil.

The conservative coalition government of Prime Minister John Howard passed the legislation through the Senate with the support of the opposition Labor Party, 49 votes to 11.

The agreement governs how revenue is shared until the two nations can agree on a new maritime boundary, to replace the one accepted by Indonesia when it ruled East Timor.

Lawmakers who oppose the deal say all of Greater Sunrise should belong exclusively to Australia's impoverished neighbor.

East Timor agreed to the revenue deal in 2002, although that country's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri later said his government was pressured by Australia and oil companies to sign it, and his parliament hasn't yet ratified the accord.

The fledgling nation hopes to get a bigger share of the oil fields once the maritime boundary is redrawn.

Greens lawmaker Bob Brown proposed two amendments to the legislation but both were defeated.

One would have allowed the International Court of Justice to decide a boundary if negotiations between Australia and East Timor couldn't agree on one by December 31 next year. The second would have allowed the Greater Sunrise agreement to lapse if a permanent boundary wasn't decided by December 31, 2006.

"What a terrible moment this is for Australia and for Timor Leste [East Timor], for this parliament," Sen. Brown told parliament. "The bill is going to rob the poorest country in Southeast Asia to line the pockets of the government and the oil corporations of the richest country in the region, which is Australia."

The Australian Democrats, a minor party, supported Sen. Brown's first amendment but dismissed the second as unworkable. "I feel like this country and this government have just been bushrangers [armed robbers] for oil," Democrats Sen. Natasha Stott Despoja said.

Government minister Eric Abetz defended the deal, saying it provided certainty of some revenue for East Timor while the maritime boundary was being negotiated.