Tito Belo, Dili – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Friday he would not pursue the job of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirming earlier media reports.

"An early departure from my current responsibility would result in early elections and this would be an unfair burden on a people who went to the polls three times in 2007," he told a news conference in Dili.

"I have reflected on the challenges, complexity and honour of serving the international community... I have consulted with my East Timor colleagues and friends. I have heard the voices of many humble East Timorese. I have also consulted many friends whose opinion I cherish," he said.

Ramos-Horta, 58, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his struggle for East Timor's independence from Indonesia. He survived an assassination attempt in February after being elected president of Asia's youngest nation last year with a five-year term.

He had a high profile as a diplomat when he won the Nobel prize and later held the posts of foreign minister and prime minister before winning the presidential election.

He was shot and critically wounded in an attack by rebel soldiers at his home in Dili in February. He has often said he wished for a quieter life to write his memoirs of East Timor's long struggle for independence from Indonesian rule.

East Timor is struggling to achieve political and social stability following violence in 2006 that killed 37 people and forced 150,000 people from their homes.

The former Portuguese colony, invaded by Indonesia in 1975, won independence in a violence-marred vote organised by the United Nations in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration.