Dili – The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has been appointed to replace Indonesia as Australia's new partner for oil and gas mining in the Timor Gap which lies between the two countries, a spokesman said here Friday.

"Yesterday [Thursday UNTAET chief] Sergio Viera de Mello and Australian consul James Bakley signed a memo of understanding," UNTAET spokesman Manoel de Almedia e Silva told journalists here. "We agreed to continue the terms of the treaty signed in 1989" with Indonesia, he said.

The text of a press release issued in the Australian capital, Canberra said the amendment was efective February 11. According to the statement, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said East Timorese independence figures had been consulted on the treaty ammendment.

"These arrangements are important to politically convince investors already making investments in the context of the Timor Gap Cooperation Zone," he said.

In talks in Jakarta last week, Downer said the Indonesian government had agreed that, following the separation of East Timor from Indonesia, the zone included in the present Timor Gap Treaty was outside Indonesia's territorial jurisdiction.

"This also means that the Timor Gap Treaty signed by Indonesia and Australia became null and void the moment the Indonesian government officially handed over East Timor to the United Nations," Downer said. Indonesia and Australia signed in 1989 a cooperation on offshore oil and gas mining in the Timor Sea.