East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao prepared to head to Portugal Thursday after a "positive" round of meetings in Washington, including talks with President George Bush.

Gusmao was expected to arrive in Lisbon Friday for a five-day official visit, his first as head of state of the newly independent Asian country. Dili's ambassador to Washington, Jose Luis Guterres, described Gusmao's separate meetings with Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice Wednesday, and earlier with other senior officials, as "positive".

He said Washington had "reaffirmed its commitment to aiding East Timor", while Gusmao had asked for continued US participation in the training of his fledgling defense force. "It is also in [Dili's] interest to reinforce cooperation in other areas" with the United States, Guterres added.

During the visit to Washington, Gusmao's delegation signed an accord establishing the legal framework covering the presence of US troops in East Timor. Earlier Dili and Washington agreed to exempting US troops from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In a report Wednesday on Gusmao's visit, the Washington Post described East Timor as "an emerging [US] ally".

Ambassador Guterres, asked about the president's health, confirmed back problems had kept Gusmao from fulfilling all his schedule. But he said the president was "improving" and would likely be fully recovered by the time he reached Lisbon Friday.

During his five-day stay in Portugal, Gusmao will hold talks with President Jorge Sampaio and Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, among other senior officials. Lisbon, East Timor's colonial ruler over four centuries, is one of Dili's major aid partners, providing it with a strong contingent of UN peacekeepers.