Dili – Australia and East Timor will resume in March talks to resolve their dispute over shared maritime boundaries and the carving up of Timor Sea hydrocarbon revenues, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Monday.

The talks in Canberra will be the fifth round in negotiations that stalled last October and will be the first bilateral discussions since the expiry of a December 31 deadline set by a consortium of oil companies for both parties to reach an accord.

The oil firms, led by Woodside Petroleum Ltd of Australia, say Dili and Canberra must reach agreement on revenue sharing from the Greater Sunrise gas project to prevent the scheme stalling for up to ten years.

Timor has still not ratified a treaty on revenue sharing from the Sunrise project, saying the current seafloor boundary gives Canberra too larger slice of hydrocarbon royalties.