Mark Dodd – East Timorese officials have hailed President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision to expand the terms of an Indonesian tribunal investigating violence in East Timor in 1999.

The decision would be welcomed by independence supporters, an East Timorese government official said. "But we'll have to wait and see what it delivers. So far there has been plenty of evidence but [the Indonesian courts] haven't got out of the starting block.

"As a first step this is much more progressive than anything [former president Abdurrahman] Wahid achieved in the last six to eight months."

In one of her few acts since taking power, Ms Megawati issued a decree last week widening the scope of a special court to try those behind the bloodshed in East Timor.

A recent decision to free the notorious Aitarak militia leader Eurico Guterres was greeted with dismay by many East Timorese. However, the arrest of another anti-independence militia leader, Igidio Mnanek, has been welcomed.