Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Indonesia is strongly resisting United Nations pressure to further delay a ballot to decide the future of East Timor after boosting the number of police in the territory to 8,000.

The head of the UN mission in East Timor, Mr Ian Martin, said yesterday that it would be difficult to achieve ideal security for the vote on the proposed dates of August 21 or 22.

"Obviously it is going to be difficult to bring about ideal security conditions but we expect the Indonesian police to make considerable further efforts to substantially improve the situation over its present conditions," Mr Martin said.

A senior official of Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, Mr Dino Djalal, told reporters in the East Timor capital, Dili, that the President, Dr B.J. Habibie, must report the result of the ballot giving East Timorese a choice between autonomy within Indonesia or independence to the first sitting of Indonesia's Parliament.

Diplomats monitoring developments in the former Portuguese territory say the UN wants to see Indonesian security forces in the province do more to stop intimidation of voters before agreeing to a date for the ballot.

But the timing of Dr Habibie's report to Parliament is also in doubt because of delays in ratifying the results of the country's June elections. And Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, won the biggest bloc of votes in the election, has made clear her opposition to East Timor breaking away from Indonesia, raising doubts she would agree to abide by the ballot result if she was elected president in November.

In a letter to the Security Council on Monday, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, outlined continuing security concerns and said the East Timorese were showing "laudable determination" to participate in the ballot, despite continuing intimidation, mainly by militia opposed to independence. Last month he decided to delay the ballot from August 8, citing violence and intimidation against pro-independence supporters.

Mr Djalal said an additional 1,300 Indonesian police arrived in East Timor on Monday and yesterday, bringing to 8,000 the number deployed around the territory to maintain security ahead of the ballot. They are backed by up more than 10,000 Indonesian troops.

Indonesian authorities in East Timor were determined all sides of the conflict should disarm to allow violence-free campaigning. But, despite agreement by their leaders, pro-independence guerillas had yet to come out of the mountains and take part in a peace reconciliation commission, he said.