Lisbon – The Indonesian army will fight to the last soldier if a UN peacekeeping force is sent to East Timor without Jakarta's approval, a senior Indonesian diplomat told the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Friday.

Nughrobo Wisnumurti, head of his country's delegation to triparite talks here between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations, was quoted as saying that "we will never submit to international pressure nor allow foreign soldiers in East Timor as long as this territory is Indonesian."

Wisnumurti said the United Nations "cannot send a [peacekeeping force] without an agreement" but that if it did, "we would send troops." His country, he said, "was not Kosovo."

Wisnumurti said that, regardless of the outcome of Monday's vote, Indonesia had sufficient resources to guarantee public order in East Timor. If there was conflict after the vote, Indonesia would have no need to increase its forces in the territory, he said.

He also predicted that Monday's outcome would be 50:50 between integrationists and independence-seekers.