Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Tuesday that East Timor's judges and court officials are to be trained in Portuguese and rejected a reported preference by the UN for the use of Indonesian by the judiciary.

"UNMISET [the current UN mission in Timor] is not the administration and UNAMET has finished. They can make the proposals they like, but I said to Mary Robinson that the Portuguese instruction will not only be in the language, but in technical matters too", said Alkatiri in reference to his meeting Sunday with the UN's human rights chief.

"All legislation currently being prepared by the government is in Portuguese. I don't see how, two or three years henceforth, judges can take decisions based on this legislation without knowing Portuguese", said Alkatiri.

Alkatiri said his government was "looking to the future" and it was vital to improve training in Portuguese to ensure the viability of judicial projects .

If the UN insisted on recruiting Indonesian-speaking judges, who would then instruct Timorese colleagues, the Timorese government would not accept this, said Alkatiri, who added that this didn't mean Dili was "against the Indonesian language".

East Timor's head of government blamed the UNTAET administration, which oversaw the 1999 independence ballot, for opting for Indonesian in Timor's legal system. The result of this, said Alkatiri, was "a completely disastrous justice system".

"It is UNTAET's fault that we have inherited this collapse in the justice system", said Alkatiri.

A document recently drawn up by the current UN mission in Dili identifies many shortcomings with Timor's justice sector but does not directly blame the former UN administration for the situation, pointing instead to a "lack of time and resources".