Lisbon – East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri repeated Sunday his denial that his impoverished country had reached a deal with Australia over sharing oil and gas reserves worth billions of dollars under their shared Timor Sea.

"Nothing has been signed yet. I am sure that sooner or later there will be an agreement. But I cannot agree that it be said that there is an accord before one exists," he told the Portuguese daily newspaper Diario de Noticias.

"There are certain details that need to be elaborated on how to guarantee our claims over our maritime border," he added.

Australian media and government officials have repeatedly said over the past few weeks that an agreement over the maritime boundary between the two countries has been concluded, with East Timor's cabinet reportedly set to vote on the agreement soon.

But Alkatari and other top East Timorese officials have said that only that the broad outlines of a possible agreement had been reached.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, broke away from Indonesia in May 2002 after a 24-year armed struggle. A 1972 boundary agreement between Australia and Indonesia gave Canberra two-thirds of the sea area between the two nations and most of its energy resources, estimated to be worth over 30 billion dollars.

East Timor, the poorest nation in Asia, started talks with Australia in April 2004 to establish the boundary at the mid-point between East Timor and Australia, giving it most of the resources.

Alkatiri carried out a two-day official visit to Portugal last week.