Greg Roberts – Life in East Timor is as good as it's ever been but that does not mean Australian troops should leave, according to an expert on the tiny island nation.

Deakin University's School of International and Political Studies Professor Damien Kingsbury said he did not agree with East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's assessment this week that the country could now manage its own problems.

"East Timor is the best its ever been, which is a positive thing for the people of East Timor," he told AAP.

"Having said that, it is still a fragile society recovering from massive trauma. It is trying to put in place all the things that make a society function, such as a comprehensive education program, healthcare, communications and transport, which is still a work in progress."

Australia has 400 troops in the country – which became a sovereign state in 2002 – along with 75 New Zealand soldiers, as part of the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force.

Australian troops, along with forces from various countries, went to East Timor in 2006 during a violent crisis that began with disputes within the country's military.

The Australian force was expected to withdraw after the 2012 national election but Timorese media reports say Mr Gusmao favours an earlier withdrawal.

Professor Kingsbury said there had been an increasing desire among the East Timorese in the last year to "assert national identity" and "control its own circumstances".

"The idea of Timor as a militarised society is worn out, people don't want to continue to see soldiers on the streets on patrols... that's a normal response," he said.

He said Mr Gusmao was a nationalist who also had an eye "firmly fixed" on the election but the professor still believed Australian and New Zealand troops would play a role training soldiers and police both up to, and after, the 2012 vote.

"It might be modified and smaller... I would expect the international community to have asignificant if reduced presence after 2012 and have a police or military training role," Prof Kingsbury said.

"In the past I've said it (East Timor) was like a broken bone with a cast put on it that is healing while there is danger... if it is healing well do you take the cast off and throw it away? Or do you put in place a lesser degree of support for healing if it is not 100 per cent?"