Asean reticent over East Timor

Asean has invited East Timor to a July meeting

The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) has reacted cautiously to calls for the newly independent state of East Timor to join the organisation.

Asean's Secretary General, Rodolfo Severino, told the BBC that East Timor would be able to argue its case at a regional forum in July - where the new nation has been invited as a guest.

But he said no formal application had yet been received, and certain conditions would have to be met first - for example an East Timorese embassy would have to open in all of Asean's 10 member states.

The East Timorese celebrated the birth of their new nation on Sunday

Despite the reticence shown by Asean, East Timor is already forging links abroad.

An application to join the United Nations, ratified in East Timor's first session of parliament on Monday, received a more positive reaction.

"All nations are equals... the doors of the United Nations are open to rich or poor nations, small or big nations," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said after receiving the application.

Later the UN's Security Council said it expected East Timor to become the UN's 190th member at the next annual session of the General Assembly in mid-September.

China has become the first country to strike up diplomatic relations with the new country, while former US President Bill Clinton raised the stars and stripes at the new US embassy.

Mr Clinton acknowledged that the US could have done more after Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975.

"I don't believe America or any of the other countries were sufficiently sensitive in the beginning or for a long time," he told reporters.

Rebuilding

East Timor's new government was sworn in on Monday, and immediately pledged to tackle the enormous task of rebuilding the country's ravaged economy.

	East Timor key facts: Population of 800,000 Asia's poorest country Languages include Tetum, Portuguese and Indonesian 90% Roman Catholic See also: East Timor's economic challenge

President Xanana Gusmao swore in a 24-member cabinet in the capital, Dili, as the country awoke from an all-night party following its move to independence on Sunday.

The new territory quickly received an economic lift, with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri signing a lucrative oil deal with Australia under which East Timor will get 90% of the revenue from a jointly controlled area of the Timor Sea.

And at the parliament's inaugural session, Mr Alkatiri presented the programme of his new government, stressing that his main spending priorities would be health and education.

Over the next three years, he said, the amount spent on these essential services would increase to almost half the national budget.

Earlier, Mr Alkatiri also emphasised "the importance of the policy of national reconciliation as an essential base for national stability".

East Timor was terrorised by pro-Indonesian militias during the vote for independence in 1999, and President Gusmao wants to rehabilitate these former militia members into East Timorese society.

Desperate poverty

East Timor's economy was seriously damaged by the violent Indonesian withdrawal in 1999 and by centuries of neglect as a Portuguese colony.

International donors - particularly former colonial power Portugal - have made an extra $360m available to help in East Timor's construction.

The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Dili, says that among the problems East Timor faces are its isolation, its lack of infrastructure and its poorly educated population.

But if agreements are signed with Australia to cover the other oil fields in the region, East Timor could receive a windfall of billions of dollars over the next two decades.