Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday abruptly changed the date for East Timor's independence vote, a move greeted with astonishment by Portugal and the United Nations, which had settled on a poll for August 8.

Jakarta said the troubled former Portuguese colony would now go to the polls a day earlier, on a Saturday.

"The direct ballot will be held on August 7," Justice Minister Muladi told reporters. "August 8 is a day off and we respect the Catholic faith."

East Timor is predominantly Catholic. Most of Indonesia is Muslim.

It was not clear why Indonesia waited until now to change the date which was agreed with Portugal in a United Nations-brokered accord last month for the ballot asking East Timorese whether they wanted wide-ranging autonomy under Indonesian rule or independence.

At the United Nations in New York, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva indicated the world body, which is organizing the ballot, would ignore the announcement and proceed on the basis on the August 8 date.

"We were not consulted on that. We continue our work on the original date agreed upon," he said.

In Jakarta, a clearly surprised head of the Portuguese mission in Jakarta, Ana Gomes, told Reuters: "I have no knowledge that the date has been changed,"

Lisbon's foreign minister, Jaime Gama, on a visit to the Portuguese enclave of Macau, said the August 8 date was written into the accord he signed with his Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas in New York earlier this month.

"The date of the vote is inscribed in an international accord. And international accords cannot be modified unilaterally," he said according to Lusa, the Portuguese news agency.

If Indonesia wanted to change the date of the vote, it should first discuss the change with the United Nations and Portugal, he said.

The ballot in East Timor has infuriated Indonesia's military, which has spearheaded Indonesia's often brutal 23-year rule in the disputed territory it invaded in 1975 and annexed a year later. The United Nations has never recognized Indonesian rule there.

Human rights workers and witnesses say the armed forces is training pro-Jakarta militias who have embarked on a reign of terror since Indonesian President B.J. Habibie made the offer of autonomy or independence.

Thursday, the United Nations, setting up monitors ahead of the poll in East Timor, warned that militias were planning fresh attacks. The United Nations has already told Indonesia it must ensure peace in the run-up to the August vote when many analysts expect the majority of East Timorese to reject autonomy in favor of independence. Indonesia has denied it is training militias.

It has promised to look into reports of recent killings, allegedly by the pro-integration militias, usually armed with primitive weapons and their ranks filled with men from remote parts of the impoverished territory.

In a Friday statement, it deplored an ambush earlier in the week by pro-independence guerrillas in which it said three soldiers were killed. "The ambush ... demonstrates the utter disregard of the anti-integration armed groups ... toward the peace process," it said.