Lisbon – Portugal's foreign ministry in Lisbon on Wednesday accused the Indonesian government of "rejecting once again any positive evaluation of the situation" in East Timor.

The foreign ministry reacted officially to claims by Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas earlier this week that Portugal was lacking the will for reaching a platform of understanding with Jakarta overEast Timor's political status. The United Nation continues to recognise Portugal as East Timor's legitimate administering power.

Alatas claimed that Portugal was not really intersted in finding a solution to the problem of East Timor.

Jakarta's Foreign Minister insisted that Portugal would have to make "big concessions" in order to reach a bilateral agreement on the East timor issue.