Ramos Horta to Be East Timor Pm

East Timor's Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta is likely to be appointed prime minister of the fledgling nation, ending seven weeks of political violence, a presidential spokeswoman said on Friday.

Aid officials are warning that a new government is desperately needed to control a humanitarian crisis in which some 150,000 people, or 17% of the population, have fled their homes.

Mr Ramos Horta, currently defence and foreign minister, is seen as a compromise agreeable to both President Xanana Gusmao and the ruling Fretilin party, who enjoy a stormy relationship. Although not a Fretilin party member, Mr Ramos Horta is one of four names Fretilin officials submitted to Mr Gusmao at a meeting on Friday.

Of the other three, agriculture minister and senior Fretilin official Stanislau da Silva is thought to be the most likely choice.

"The way I am hearing things is that Ramos Horta is likely to be prime minister ... until the next elections in 2007," Mr Gusmao's spokeswoman, Lusi Tania Lopez, told the Associated Press.

Fretilin officials declined to comment after meeting the president except to say a decision was expected during the weekend.

The new prime minister will replace Mari Alkatiri, who resigned on June 26 in a bid to calm the nation, which had collapsed into anarchy after about 600 of the 1,400-strong military rebelled over alleged discrimination.

More than 30 people were killed in weeks of clashes between different factions of the military, police and civilian gangs. Mr Alkatiri was summoned yesterday to answer allegations of involvement in illegal weapons distribution to civilian militias.

More than 3,200 Australian-led international peacekeepers are maintaining order in the country which in 1999 voted overwhelmingly to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. It gained full independence three years later.

Australian army spokesman Major James Baker told the Guardian on Friday the peacekeepers had recovered some 1,300 weapons, the security situation in the capital Dili was now stable, and the incidence of crime had "dropped dramatically", although at least one Chinese-owned shop in Dili was burnt down on Friday.

The humanitarian situation was still extremely fragile, however, and would not be resolved until a new government was in place, the head of the United Nations' relief mission, Eliane Duthoit, said.

"I don't think the situation is under control," she said. "Everything is dependent on the political situation. If that's solved then the [displaced people] might return home if they're happy with the new government. If they're not happy then anything could happen."

The UN estimates some 72,000 people in and around Dili and 78,000 in the countryside have fled their homes.

"Things have improved to the extent that many people are returning home during the day but at night they come back to the camps because they're not sure about the security situation in Dili," Ms Duthoit said, adding that there were now no significant food security or health problems.

The UN ran East Timor for three years until independence and often cited the country as a nation-building success story. In recent weeks it has been criticised for scaling back its mission too quickly after handing over power.