Timor militiaman captured

There are around 8,000 peacekeepers in East Timor

International peacekeepers have shot and captured an East Timorese militiaman during two gun battles near the volatile border with Indonesian West Timor.

The man was injured after two or three gunmen armed with automatic weapons opened fire on about 15 Australian troops on Sunday night, an Australian Defence department spokesman said.

"The Australian patrol ordered the militiamen to surrender their weapons but the group fired on the patrol," he added.

"The patrol returned fire, wounding and capturing one militiaman. The remaining members of the group escaped towards the border with West Timor."

The firefight came five days after an Australian patrol killed two armed East Timorese militia members near the border, where there has been an apparent upsurge in militia activity.

Sunday's skirmish happened near the town of Batugade, about 1km from the border.

In a separate incident shortly afterwards, another Australian patrol exchanged gunfire with a group of about six armed militiamen near Maliana, also close to the border.

The Australian Defence Department spokesman said there were signs that one militiaman had been wounded in the shooting.

No Australians were hurt in either incident.

Refugees

International troops were sent into East Timor last September when the territory erupted in violence after it voted for indepedence from Indonesia.

Two peacekeepers have been killed

The United Nations-backed force suffered its first combat casualty on 24 July when a New Zealand soldier was killed by militiamen near the southern border town of Suai.

A Bangladeshi peacekeeper has since been killed in an explosion near Dili.

Indonesia has come under increasing criticism for failing to stamp out anti-independence militia activity in refugee camps in West Timor.

Up to 120,000 East Timorese fled across the border last year during the violence following the independence vote.

Australian Defence Minister John Moore said last week that the militia were now better trained and armed than before.