Predicting his Fretilin party would win East Timor's first free elections by a landslide, Mari Alkatiri warned the territory's UN transition administration Monday his party could refuse to join a new interim government if UNTAET did not follow Fretilin's lead.

"Fretilin is not in a hurry to be in government", Alkatiri told a Dili news conference. "Either things are done with our accord or we will stay out of government, limiting our participation to the constitutional assembly and forming a government when independence is restored".

Tensions between Fretilin, which is widely favored to win the constituent assembly election Thursday, and UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello center on the latter's publicly expressed intention of forming a broad-based transition cabinet, reflecting the vote.

Alkatiri said Fretilin "defends a government of inclusion, a concept invented by us", but that the party was only open to "a coalition of talents, not a coalition of parties". Fretilin, he added, would "not negotiate" with the UN administration or the other 15 parties contesting seats for the 88-member constituent assembly.

Alkatiri forecast that Fretilin would win outright in 12 of East Timor's 13 districts, gaining around 73 assembly seats with about 83 percent of the ballots.