Canberra – Paul Keating was a politically dead former prime minister trying to maintain relevance and "would be better off walking naked down the street", East Timorese Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta said today.

In a scathing attack on Mr Keating, whom he referred to only as "that former prime minister", Mr Ramos- Horta said Labor had treated Indonesia with servility, allowing it to think it could get away with invasion and genocide.

He told a Rotary Club conference in Canberra that Mr Keating maintained a "touching father-son relationship" with former Indonesian president Suharto.

And he said it was thanks to Prime Minister John Howard that the United Nations intervention had succeeded, saving thousands of lives.

Mr Keating returned the jibes in an interview on Channel 10, saying that if it had been left to wiser heads like Dili's Bishop Belo, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel peace prize with Mr Ramos- Horta, there would have seen a different result in East Timor.

He said Mr Ramos-Horta had believed he could trick the East Timorese into believing they could vote for independence and survive.

Mr Keating also attacked Mr Howard for his role in pushing Indonesia towards allowing a free vote in East Timor "when he must have realised it would result in mayhem".

Mr Ramos-Horta had said Mr Keating should stay out of any discussions on the situation in East Timor. "In the last few days I heard of comments and criticism by a politically deceased former prime minister criticising the incumbent prime minister for his handling of East Timor," he said.

"That former prime minister reminds me of a deceased African despot called Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic. When the late French president Charles De Gaulle died many years ago, that African tinpot dictator Bokassa cried and screamed, called out the name Charles De Gaulle and said 'papa, papa'.

"That former prime minister of yours also has a touching fatherly relationship with the Indonesian dictator Suharto.

"We all know how the previous Labor government went out of its way to treat the dictators with servility, which allowed the dictatorship to think that it could get away with total impunity, no matter what it did in East Timor ... what it did in Indonesia."

Mr Ramos-Horta said former prime ministers and presidents were often desperate to grab attention. "Well, they would do better to do things like walking naked in the streets," he said.

In recent comments, Mr Keating has strongly criticised Mr Howard for his letter to former Indonesian president BJ Habibie urging that the independent ballot be held in East Timor. He said that letter was an act of irresponsibility which forced premature action and resulted in the destruction of East Timorese society.

But Mr Ramos-Horta said that letter played only a minor role in forcing Indonesia to resolve the East Timor situation. He said it was the long process of cumulative damage and international criticism over many years which convinced the pragmatic president Habibie it was time to change.

"John Howard's letter was only a drop in the ocean of international pressure and protest," he said. "It contributed but it was not the deciding factor."

But Mr Keating said today that Mr Ramos-Horta had pursued a divisive agenda for years. "Ramos-Horta, I believe, reflected no virtue on himself in all the years he was out there trying to find a point of difference with people over East Timor, " Mr Keating told Channel Ten. " ... If it had not been for wiser heads like Bishop Belo, Australia may have witnessed a different result in the East Timor conflict."

He said that in seeking a vote for independence for East Timor, Mr Ramos-Horta had approached an Indonesian president (BJ Habibie) who did not have authority and couldn't even control his own army. "[Mr Horta believed he could] trick people into believing they could vote for independence and survive ... then [he could] watch them murdered and cut to ribbons, and then put the troops in and say, 'well, everything's all right, I can sleep at night'," Mr Keating said.

"Well, I can tell you, I wouldn't have slept at night." Mr Ramos-Horta said similar appeasement to that fostered by Mr Keating had encouraged Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to first invade Iran in the 1980s and then Kuwait.