Darwin – The Australian government is under pressure to make public its draft agreement on Timor Sea energy reserves to prove the East Timorese were not signing away their legal rights.

Australians for a Free East Timor spokesman Rob Wesley-Smith attacked the federal government for announcing last week that it would no longer submit to international rulings on maritime boundaries.

The announcement came within days of a seminar in Dili which heard expert opinions that East Timor was poised to lose tens of billions of dollars due how the Timor Gap Treaty boundaries were drawn.

On returning from the seminar, Mr Wesley-Smith said the East Timorese could jeopardise their future prospects of claiming a larger share of the Timor Gap by signing a treaty after independence next month.

"We call on this agreement to be published on the internet to enable independent legal experts to analyse it now," Mr Wesley-Smith said. "And for the new East Timor assembly not to sign it until this is done and it is fully understood that it does not jeopardise future maritime boundary claims."

East Timor Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri flew to Britain soon after the seminar which was held by PetroTimor. PetroTimor is a United States company that claims energy rights on the Timor Sea bed dating back to the Portuguese colonial era. "The chief minister met with a leading British international lawyer to discuss various matters, including the Timor Sea," a United Nations spokesman said.

Timor at only 75 per cent of the cost of piping gas to Australia. But East Timorese leaders say they remain committed to Phillip Petroleum's plan to pipe gas to Darwin.