Rebel soldiers shot and badly wounded East Timor's president and opened fire on the prime minister in what was said to be a failed coup in the recently-independent nation.

East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta was wounded in a pre-dawn attack on his home that killed a guard.

At least 57 inmates escaped from an East Timor jail today, including a former military police chief and some militiamen who opposed the country’s break from Indonesian rule, the prison warden said.

The commander of rebels in a conflict with East Timor’s government said the insurgents would hand over weapons to international peacekeepers today, after being asked to disarm by President Xanana Gusmao.

The UN should help oversee elections in East Timor and stay involved in the violence-scarred nation for at least a decade, the foreign minister said today, noting that restoring order and building a democracy would take time and money.

An East Timor rebel leader today said he was willing to hold talks on ending the troubled country’s wave of violence, but made clear that any solution should not include a role for the current prime minister.

The fired army commander whose rebellion triggered the collapse of security in East Timor today demanded that the prime minister resign and be put on trial.

Fierce gun battles raged in East Timor’s capital today, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen, as international troops headed to the tiny nation to help it quell a rebellion by disgruntled ex-soldiers.

Peacekeepers from Australia and New Zealand were deployed to East Timor today to help restore calm after gun battles between the tiny nation’s military and disgruntled ex-soldiers killed two people and injured nine.