Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – As East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta convalesces in Dili, some of his compatriots perhaps are wishing he had taken a while longer to recuperate, not least among them Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Standing alongside Indonesian leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Jakarta presidential palace on Tuesday, Mr Gusmao pleaded with Indonesian and international journalists to go easy on Mr Ramos Horta, 58, after a series of sensational statements in recent days made world headlines.

A weakened Mr Ramos Horta, on his return from Darwin two weeks ago after the shooting that almost ended his life, suggested that "individuals in Indonesia" were involved in the plot.

Specifically, he accused prominent Jakarta-based television reporter Desi Anwar of having provided false papers last year to rebel leader Alfredo Reinado so the fugitive, who died in the February 11 melee at the President's Dili home, could travel to Jakarta to give a nationally broadcast interview.

"Mr Alfredo Reinado had a lot of contacts in Indonesia. He went there with false documents," MrRamos Horta told reporters in Dili.

"Who issued to him these false documents? We knew who did. The authority in Atambua (on the Indonesian side of the border) did it with the help of Metro TV's Ms Desi Anwar. And I will take this complaint to Brussels, to all international journalists' institutions, because their activities among others that almost led me to be killed... if necessary I will take the matter to the (UN) Security Council, as happened with the assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister (Rafik Hariri)."

Speaking to The Australian a few hours after the initial claims were made, Anwar expressed bewilderment at Mr Ramos Horta's accusation and apparently fragile mental state.

"I can only assume he is not yet fully recovered, and I will pray for him," the popular journalist said, speculating that the President, knowing she had covered news of East Timor's independence struggle over the years, had simply plucked her name from the air.

The Metro TV program on which Reinado appeared last year had nothing to do with Anwar; instead, it was on the evening talk show Kick Andy, hosted by genial interviewer Andy Noya.

Further, the location of the interview, whether in Jakarta or elsewhere, is still a tightly guarded secret and as one of the few people who knows, Noya is not saying. Mr Ramos Horta believes it was shot in a Jakarta hotel "pretending to be inside East Timor".

Within a few days Anwar had written in the national newsmagazine Tempo an angry response to Mr Ramos Horta's accusation and then, this week, came an announcement from Metro TV that it would sue unless he clarified his remarks.

The President's reaction was swift: he claimed to have been misquoted and, while admitting he was wrong to have used Anwar's name, accused Metro TV of engaging in "completely misleading" behaviour in its reporting.

No less a figure than Dr Yudhoyono had already expressed extreme displeasure at the implication by his counterpart that there might have been an Indonesian connection to the assassination attempt.

It was his "fervent hope", the usually phlegmatic Dr Yudhoyono said, that East Timor's leadership "would not issue any statement to insinuate any involvement on the part of Indonesia... statements such as these could disrupt our bilateral ties, which are currently in excellent condition".

Still back-pedalling furiously, Mr Ramos Horta, once a propaganda officer in the early days of East Timor's rebel Fretilin movement, described the row as the result of "a misrepresentation by the media". In Jakarta this week, an obviously pained Mr Gusmao was rather more direct, as he announced he would be calling on Anwar to convey the President's regrets over the episode.

"I just ask you to consider that, having been in an induced coma for two weeks, President Ramos Horta has made a remarkable recovery," he told journalists.

"However, we appeal to you for your understanding of his state of spirit, having come close to losing his life... I ask you not to blow up things but to understand the environment (in which) my President is dealing with (this)."