East Timor4s presidential election campaign kicked off Friday with a rally in Dili and UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello predicting a peaceful race.

As in last year4s Constituent Assembly vote, Vieira de Mello said he had "no reason to believe" there would be "any form of violence" in the countdown to the April 14 election, a landmark towards the territory4s May 20 declaration of independence.

He told reporters he had spoken to both Gusmao, generally considered a virtual shoe-in, and rival candidate, Xavier do Amaral, reminding them that a "national unity pact", signed before last August's assembly balloting, remained in place. "This time, nobody foresees any violence, but we are taking some preventive measure, as is natural", Viera de Mello said.

In the first formal campaign action, Gusmao told 1,000 supporters at a Dili rally that, if elected president, he would serve with the "same humility" and "faith and confidence" which, he said, had characterized his leadership in resistance to Indonesian occupation.

"My life has only one objective – to serve Timor, to serve the people", he said. "We want to build East Timor, and building is development", Gusmao added. "There will be no development without democracy, and only in consciously assuming democratic values will we create stability for the integral development of our cherished Timor".

Gusmao, who refused to run as an independent or with the support of the dominant Fretilin party, he once led, thanked the nine opposition parties backing him for their "integrity" and "political maturity".

Gusmao has indicated he wants to serve as a democratic counter-balance to the overwhelming political weight of Fretilin, which holds 55 of the constituent assembly's 88 seats and dominates the transition cabinet of Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri. Fretilin, which failed to persuade Gusmao to run as an independent, is not formally backing either of the two candidates.

A simple placard on the rally's stage summed up Gusmao's key campaign concerns: "Democracy, Stability and Development, National Unity and Reconciliation". Perhaps the most controversial plank in Gusmao4s six-page platform calls for an amnesty for crimes committed during the 1999 independence plebiscite, almost exclusively by anti-independence militias and Indonesian security forces. Rival Amaral, the Constituent Assembly4s vice-president, whose candidacy is backed by two small parties, begins his campaign Saturday in the interior town of Aileu.