East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao appealed to business leaders in the former colonial power Portugal Friday to invest in his war-battered country, recently admitted to the United Nations.

"We still don't have the fundamental conditions to ensure confidence for businessmen ... but it would be good if they came to see us to look at the investment possibilities," he said upon arrival. He said tourism, fishing and the telecoms industry are the priority sectors for foreign investment in East Timor.

Gusmao is making a five-day visit to Portugal that will include talks with President Jorge Sampaio and Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

East Timor was admitted as the 191st member of the United Nations in late September, barely four months after it became independent.

Portugal colonised East Timor for four centuries before it abruptly withdrew in 1975, leaving the territory to be overrun and annexed by Indonesia.