Nigel Wilson – East Timor says it may call on the US to broker a deal with Australia on maritime boundaries that would give it access to billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues now under Australian jurisdiction.

At the same time, East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri says his parliament will not ratify an agreement with Australia that is essential for the development of the Greater Sunrise gas field 550km northwest of Darwin in the Timor Sea.

Dr Alkatiri told the ABC that East Timor was not happy with the so-called International Unitisation Agreement on Greater Sunrise, because it would receive only 18 per cent of revenue from the development.

The agreement was ratified by the Australian parliament last month. The second round of official talks on the boundary are scheduled to begin in Dili on Monday.

Asked his position on seeking US intervention, Dr Alkatiri said third-party involvement might be necessary. "East Timor is one of the poorest countries in the world; Australia is one of the richest." Only a third party could pressure Canberra into accepting arbitration on the boundary issue.

East Timor says there has never been a boundary between the two countries and argues that boundaries struck between Australia and Indonesia offshore of East Timor are illegal. Dr Alkatiri repeated his claim that Canberra had not shown good faith on the issue, and called on Australians to object to the plan. "I trust the Australian people, the Australian politicians, academics and all of the Australians of goodwill, and I think they can really influence the Government," he said.

A spokesman for Woodside Petroleum, which leads the group seeking to develop Greater Sunrise, said last night the agreement on legal and fiscal terms ratified by the Australian parliament was essential for the project to proceed. Unless East Timor ratified the agreement, there would be no development.