Craig Skehan – East Timor has made a claim for all of the $30 billion Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea as part of a bid to pressure Australia into sensitive negotiations on maritime boundaries.
Australia is offering East Timor an 18 per cent stake in Greater Sunrise.
While a treaty arrangement gives East Timor 90 per cent of government revenues in a joint development area, Australia is seeking a separate annex covering the rich Greater Sunrise field.
East Timor believes that there is a case under international law for the whole of Greater Sunrise to be included within its maritime border.
About 80 per cent of the Greater Sunrise field lies on the Australian side of a 1972 seabed boundary.
The Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri, said in Darwin yesterday: "Sunrise should be 100 per cent East Timorese." He added that East Timor's claim was "open to negotiations".
At talks in Canberra yesterday, East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, asked his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, to agree to start maritime boundary negotiations as soon as possible. "There is no timetable as yet," an East Timorese source said.
In March, Australia announced that it would not accept International Court of Justice (ICJ) jurisdiction in relation to any future disputes over maritime boundaries.
Two rounds of talks in Canberra yesterday involved the Prime Minister, John Howard, Mr Downer, East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao, and Mr Ramos Horta.
A spokesman for Mr Downer said later that Australia accepted East Timor's right to seek a permanent delineation of boundaries. However, he said any discussion would need to ensure that "Australia's current boundaries with Indonesia are not brought into question".
The issue of negotiations with East Timor opening up scope for Indonesia to make new boundary claims is diplomatically sensitive.
Mr Ramos Horta said yesterday that East Timor accepted that it was Australia's sovereign decision to "make reservations" on the jurisdiction of the ICJ. However, he said it was up to both Indonesia and Australia as "neighbours and friends" to negotiate with East Timor on boundaries.
Mr Ramos Horta did not rule out a legal battle with Australia if negotiations break down.