Reacting Thursday to calls from East Timor's religious leader for the expulsion of a Portuguese correspondent from Dili, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said there will be freedom of the press in the new nation.

"I can guarantee that the media will have freedom in this country, as we fought for this, so that there would be freedom of thought, expression and information" said Timor's head of government.

Alkatiri's comments came in response to a letter published in a Dili newspaper Thursday from Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, in which the Catholic prelate called for the expulsion of the Lusa news agency's correspondent over "an article against the Timorese people and the Catholics of Dili".

The Bishop had lived through a period of severe restriction of liberty during the Indonesian occupation, Alkatiri said, adding that Belo "knows what the cost of free information is".

The prime minister, who is also leader of the governing Fretilin party, said he received Belo's letter Monday, only reading the article in question Tuesday. "Yesterday [Wednesday] I read the Lusa report and wondered to myself ... if it was the same article that warranted this reaction, or a different one. I was in doubt as I don't know if the article merited this response", said Alkatiri.

Asked to comment on the Bishop's assertion that Lusa had offered a very poor service to East Timor, Alkatiri referred to the large number of pieces the agency published monthly on the country. "I have a positive appraisal of Lusa's work. All of us kow what Lusa has done and what the Portuguese media have achieved in East Timor, particularly Lusa, Alkatiri said.

Portugal's national journalist'union said it was "shocked" by the Bishop's comments, pointing to the importance of respecting press freedom. The Lusa news agency's head of information, Fernando Trigo, described the request for the Dili correspondent's expulsion as an "unprecedented demand" and the Bishop's accusation as "inappropriate".