Paul Toohey – President Jose Ramos Horta is struggling to comprehend the betrayal involved in an attempt by former members of the Timorese military to kill him and the country's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao.

Although he is recovering well from bullet wounds in a Darwin hospital, Mr Ramos Horta was said yesterday to have been hurt in ways surgery could not mend.

Speaking after a meeting between Mr Ramos Horta and Mr Gusmao – who also came close to death after a near-simultaneous ambush on his motorcade – the Prime Minister's Australian-born wife said the morale of the two men had been seriously affected.

"Obviously this one has a deeply personal nature and it will be hard, I guess, to recover from the fact that someone, a member of your people, has taken a gun and taken this action against you," Kirsty Sword-Gusmao said.

"But (the President is) extremely robust. I know he won't allow this to distract him from the business of taking care of the nation and the people."

Of her husband, she said: "I think, similarly to President Ramos Horta, he has suffered in terms of his morale, but it's not long-term damage.

"And as with Jose Ramos Horta, he'll get back on the job, stay focused on what the issue is, which is about nation building, restoring complete peace and calm to the population."

Mr Gusmao said he greeted Mr Ramos Horta at Darwin Private Hospital with the words: "How are you, Mr President? How are you, brother?"

"As you know, I came as Prime Minister, and as a friend also, to visit the President," Mr Gusmao said. "We are very glad to see the President walking around and being in a good recovery process.

"I told the President about the situation in our country and I have to tell you also that we are still trying to bring pressure to the rest of the rebel group (responsible for the assassination attempts). We hope this week will be the end of the operation."

The rebel leader, Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha, who has been identified as being at the Prime Minister's house on the morning of February 11 and is accused a firing his rifle into the air to give the signal to his men to fire on Mr Gusmao's motorcade, was set to surrender late last week.

It had got to the point where vehicles had been arranged to bring Salsinha and more than 30 of his men, with 18 automatic weapons, into Dili. But negotiations collapsed. Mr Gusmao said yesterday Salsinha had two choices: "surrender or face the consequences".

Ms Sword-Gusmao, who along with her husband was accompanied on the short trip to Darwin by her eldest son, Alexandre, said the meeting between the nation's two leaders was a warm one.

"Clearly (they are) two men who have been very close friends and colleagues for a very long time and I guess they've both been through a pretty horrific ordeal in recent weeks, and naturally, for Xanana to see Jose in such good physical form and in good spirits was a huge relief.

"For us as a family, this was an important opportunity to see with our own eyes that Jose, or godfather as Alexandre knows him, is doing well and to have that confidence he'll soon be back on board and leading again the country so capably."

Mr Ramos Horta is likely to soon move into a safe house in Darwin and may not be home in Dili for another month.