EAST TIMOR: The first of 2,000 international peacekeepers arrived in East Timor yesterday. They entered an increasingly anarchic situation with gun battles intensifying between elements of the security forces and the president disagreeing with the prime minister.
Some 130 Australian commandos secured the international airport in the capital Dili, and an Australian navy frigate steamed into the city's harbour.
They were warmly welcomed by hundreds of civilians caught up in the three-sided fighting between 600 dismissed soldiers, the remaining 850 members of the military and elements of the police force.
More than 1,000 additional Australian troops are expected in the next 48 hours, along with 60 New Zealanders, 120 Portuguese and 500 Malaysians.
They were invited in by the East Timorese government on Wednesday after it accepted that it could not contain the violence.
At least three people were killed and more than two dozen wounded yesterday as fighting flared in several quarters of Dili.
The popular but relatively powerless president Xanana Gusmao and the much less popular prime minister Mari Alkatiri have disagreed over control of the security forces, according to diplomats.
Mr Gusmao was said to have taken control of the military, but reports that he had dissolved parliament could not be confirmed.
The crisis began in March when 600 of the 1,400 members of the armed forces were dismissed for striking over conditions. They refused to hand in their weapons.