Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday rejected reports that rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was executed rather than killed in a gunbattle with police.

"Alfredo wasn't shot from one or two metres (yards) away, nor was he arrested before he was shot. He came armed to the head of state with a lot more people – this was a serious situation," he told reporters.

The government says Ramos-Horta was critically wounded and Reinado was killed by police as the rebel led an assassination attempt at the president's compound on the outskirts of Dili in February.

But The Australian newspaper said last month it had obtained the autopsy reports for Reinado and fellow rebel Leopoldino Exposto which showed they had been shot at very close range.

Forensic pathologist Muhammad Nurul Islam, who conducted the autopsies, said Reinado and Exposto were killed "at close range" with a high-velocity rifle, The Australian reported.

Exposto, who was killed along with Reinado in the same incident, was shot once in the centre of the back of his head, typical of an execution-style killing, it said.

Ramos-Horta said investigators had concluded that Reinado was shot from at least two metres (six feet) away.

"Based on reports from the prosecutor general, the shooting of Reinado was from a close range of between two to 20 metres," said the president, who was also shot during the incident and required life-saving surgery in Australia.

He said Reinado had kicked in the door of his home and disarmed his private security guards when he was shot by a police officer.

"Everybody knows that my security guards were at that time staying in different locations and some had fallen asleep. If they had been on alert Alfredo wouldn't have entered my residence," he said.

Rebels also attacked Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao at the same time in a different part of Dili but he escaped unhurt.

Former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, of the opposition Fretilin party, urged the government to release the results of its investigation.

"It should have been made public. Why they are buying time?" he asked. "I just continue to say that the investigation has to have credibility so that people will trust it and it can prevent further instability."