General Wiranto was speaking during a visit to the border area where an Indonesian policeman was shot dead on Sunday in a clash with the Australian-led international force in East Timor (Interfet).

The BBC's Jonathan Head: "Genreal Wiranto resisted the temptation to beat the nationalist drum"

"My troops would like to invite Interfet for a joint patrol ... to avoid miscommunication etc that could cause casualties and, later on, international problems," he told reporters in the border village of Motaain.

"We will put together joint patrol procedures and joint posts so that we can trust each other and will not blame each other."

Gen Wiranto: proposal to avoid further clashes

Both sides blamed the other for the clash. After visiting the scene, General Wiranto said that the Indonesian armed forces had not been at fault and that it had been "clearly a violation" by Interfet.

Interfet's Australian commander, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, said the Indonesian security forces had been inside East Timor when the incident began.

The multinational force has offered to supply Indonesia with detailed maps and sophisticated global positioning system (GPS) equipment to help avoid further clashes, Interfet spokesman Colonel Mark Kelly said.

He said the GPS equipment would ensure both sides knew where the border was.

Interfet says it does not know why the Indonesian troops it spoke to after Sunday's clash appeared to be using Dutch colonial maps from the 1920s.

Relations with Australia plummet

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, said on Tuesday that Indonesia would complain to the United Nations over the incident.

He said relations with Australia had sunk to the lowest level in their history.

The Indonesian navy cancelled a joint operation with the Australian navy to monitor the oil-rich Timor Gap in East Timor's territorial waters.

Militias to be disarmed

Interfet commanders say they were operating within the rules of engagement

General Wiranto promised to deal with the problem of the pro-Indonesian militias who went on a murderous rampage after East Timor voted in favour of independence on August 30.

He issued a statement saying that Indonesia would not let West Timor become a launch-pad for "any activity or struggle" against East Timor's independence.

He also told reporters that refugee camps in West Timor would be cleaned up to prevent militias using them as a base for guerrilla attacks.

A senior military spokesman said the militias would be disarmed.

Dili market opened

The BBC's Patrick Walker reports on the reopening of the market

As efforts continue to return some sort of normality to life in East Timor, Interfet engineers have formally opened the central market in the capital Dili.

The market was burnt to the ground by pro-Indonesian militiamen during the violence that followed the August referendum.

Soldiers from Australia's Combat Engineer Regiment and the UK's Royal Gurkha Rifles Battalion have reconstructed a small part of the market to help kick-start the local economy.

Belo's plea

Return to normality: shoppers haggle over a hen

East Timor's spiritual leader, Bishop Carlos Belo, has urged the UN to speed up the creation of a civil administration in the territory.

Bishop Belo, who returned to the territory last week, said that at present the people of East Timor were living "in a kind of vacuum of power: no law, no order, no police, no judicial system".

The bishop told Reuters news agency that such an administration was necessary before East Timor could bring to justice those militia members responsible for the recent killings and begin a process of reconciliation.