Tim Johnston, Dili – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday the opposing factions in East Timor should share power after the August 30 ballot on independence.

But Downer, in the East Timor capital for a 24-hour visit, said there were "enormous risks ahead" before, during and after the UN-run ballot.

"After a quarter of century [of conflict] the reconciliation process is going to be extremely difficult, but it is a very important component of the future of East Timor," Downer told a news conference.

He suggested that power sharing after the vote would promote reconciliation between the parties. "I think that ... having a government which brings together people from both sides of the argument is a very positive idea. I think that it will be very important that there [is no] 'winner-take-all' approach to the result," he said.

Downer, on the first visit by an Australian foreign minister to East Timor, met with representatives of the Indonesian government and security forces as well as leaders of both sides of the East Timorese political divide.

He received a particularly warm welcome from a crowd of independence supporters. A group of about 100 people shouted slogans and sang pro-independence songs as Downer's convoy, accompanied by large numbers of Indonesian police, arrived at the office of the National Council for Timorese Resistance.

Downer told journalists he welcomed the United Nation's decision to go ahead with the ballot, in which the East Timorese will be asked to choose between independence and greater autonomy within Indonesia. But he warned that violence was still a possibility.

"We are pleased that the ballot is going ahead and that there is now a real opportunity to resolve the issue of East Timor after a generation of conflict," he said.

"There is a long way to go. There are enormous risks ahead and there has been so much violence now for so long, violence could erupt again."

There have been a number of threats against Australian citizens in East Timor, and Downer said he expected the Indonesian authorities, who are responsible for security during the process, to protect them.

Australia was one of the few developed nations to recognise Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor. But since last year Canberra has become one of the most vocal supporters of the right of the East Timorese to decide their future.

Downer welcomed Thursday's statement from Megawati Sukarnoputri, who heads what is expected to be the largest party in Indonesia's new parliament, that she would respect the choice of the East Timorese.

"This does represent a big step forward in this East Timorese process because we can now expect that the People's Consultative Assembly [Indonesia's parliament] will pass any changes the people of East Timor vote for," he said.

Downer arrived on Friday and is due to fly to Papua New Guinea on Saturday morning.