Canberra – Australia received information from a wide variety of sources on developments in East Timor but could have done nothing more than it did to pressure Indonesia to rein in militia violence, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Mr Howard said Australia made 120 separate representations to Indonesia from the start of the year to the time of the East Timor ballot.

"Australia ahead of any other nation on earth put pressure on the Indonesian government to accept a peacekeeping operation," he said on ABC television.

"The Indonesian army failed in its duty at the very very least and potentially much worse. But there is no way on earth the Indonesian government was going to allow peace enforcers to go into east Timor until after the ballot.

"Every effort was made. Short of invasion, how else could you have got people there." Leaked intelligence reports indicate Australian authorities knew well in advance the Indonesian military (TNI) was orchestrating militia violence in East Timor.

Mr Howard said Australia received a great range of advice and the fundamental issue was that Australia had no capacity to alter Indonesian conduct other than by intense diplomatic pressure.

"Nobody in their remotest senses could have suggested that we should have contemplated military action against the will of the government of the republic of East Timor, " he said.

"There was no way the Indonesians were going to accept foreign troops on their soil before the ballot. No way.

"We are seeing a massive and partisan attempt to rewrite history and it won't wash."