Dili – Tiny East Timor accused its giant neighbour Australia on Friday of breaching international law by issuing exploration licences in a disputed section of a giant gasfield in the sea area between them.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said his country is committed to honouring agreements with Canberra about the Greater Sunrise field.

However, he said his country's parliament would find it easier to ratify their International Unitisation Agreement on exploiting the gasfield "if Australia was acting in accordance with international law."

Alkatiri has criticised Australian claims that part of Greater Sunrise is under its exclusive control. He says the Timor Sea Treaty which both countries have signed recognises that its status is still in dispute.

The treaty gives Australia interim rights to at least 82 percent of the totalrevenues from the reserves until Dili and Canberra reach agreement on where their maritime boundary should fall.

Australia wants to keep the border which was agreed with Jakarta after Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975. This would give it the lion's share of the reserves.

But newly independent East Timor argues that the border should lie at the mid-point between the two countries, in line with international practice.

In March 2002, Australia withdrew from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea before the dispute reached the arbiter.

Alkatiri, in a statment Friday, again took Australia to task for issuing licences in disputed areas and for refusing to agree a timeframe to settle the border.

Its stance, he said, "does not help Timor-Leste's [East Timor's] trust in Australia to abide by any legally binding agreement entered into."

East Timor was Asia's poorest nation when it became independent in May 2002. It counts on oil and gas reserves to end its dependence on foreign aid.