Australian peacekeeping troops will remain in East Timor if the United Nations extends its mission in the world's newest country for another year as expected, the government said on Wednesday.
The United Nations Security Council is due next week to consider a new mission in Southeast Asia's poorest nation to replace the existing peacekeeping operation that ends on May 20.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he believed the United Nations would easily pass a new resolution providing for a continued peacekeeping force in the former Indonesian territory that was wracked by violence after a 1999 vote for independence.
"It'll provide for a much smaller peacekeeping force but also for a significant police presence because the real security issue in East Timor today is the issue of law and order and internal security," Downer told reporters.
There are currently about 1,750 UN troops and military observers in the tiny country.
The United Nations administered East Timor until independence in May 2002 after years of often brutal Indonesian rule.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has suggested keeping a force of 310 soldiers and an intervention force of 125 police to patrol the border separating East Timor from the Indonesian province of West Timor, as well as some civilian staff.
Many East Timorese fear the re-emergence of pro-Indonesian militias who went on a bloody rampage after the 1999 ballot if international security forces left.
Downer said it was understandable that the East Timorese were still worried about possible action by the militias after about 1,000 people were killed in the post-ballot violence.
"That's why we're keeping some peacekeeping presence there and there'll be an Australian component of that," he said.
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