Sydney – The president of the Timorese Democratic Party (UDT) said here Sunday he was asked by the Indonesian military to kill Australian journalist Hamish McDonald in 1975.

McDonald is now foreign editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Joao Carrascalao, whose forces at the time were collaborating with Indonesian troops, told ethnic broadcaster SBS radio that a Colonel Sugianto told him to set up an ambush to murder McDonald, who was then the only reporter covering East Timor.

McDonald was not available for comment Sunday.

Earlier this week in the Portugeuse capital Lisbon another key member of the UDT said the sole objective of a 1975 attack on the Timorese border outpost of Balibo was to kill journalists.

Five Australian journalists died in the assault.

The incident has been the subject of numerous unresolved inquiries in Australia, but Jakarta as always vehemently denied allegations the men were murdered by Indonesian troops.

The Sherman inquiry, released last year, found the journalsts were killed in crossfire.

However, Carrascalao told SBS's Portugeuse program that people giving evidence at the inquiry were too afraid to tell the truth.

"From the people that were inquired (sic), there is enough substance to prove the journalists were deliberately killed, and they were not killed in crossfire," Carrascalao said.

A total of 700 Indonesian troops attacked Bilibo on four fronts and were met with resistence from just one Fretilin freedom fighter, who was quickly killed at his machine gun position.

The International Commission of Jurists has called for a new inquiry into the killings in light of the fresh evidence.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed the former Portugeuse colony the following year in a move still not recognised by the United Nations.