East Timor's resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, joined the Indonesian President yesterday in calling for a new era of friendly ties and co-operation.
Mr Gusmao, accompanied by Nobel peace laureate, Mr Jose Ramos-Horta, met President Abdurrahman Wahid at the presidential palace at the end of a brief visit at the president's invitation.
"All that I want to say is that we start now a new relationship between East Timor and Indonesia.
"We are committed to do our best to create a co-operative, friendly and a good relationship between the two countries," said Mr Gusmao, who was jailed for seven years in Jakarta for leading an insurrection in East Timor.
"We are open to the Indonesian people. We are open to East Timorese that maybe choose to be Indonesian citizens to go there or live there."
His views were echoed by Mr Wahid, elected in October in Indonesia's first contested presidential vote.
Earlier, Mr Gusmao returned to Jakarta's Cipinang jail, where he spent most of his seven years in detention and where 18 East Timorese prisoners are still held.
He asked Mr Wahid to see that their release, already approved in principle, is carried out. Mr Wahid said he would see to it but that it would have to wait until after his trip to China. He leaves for Beijing today.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that several Filipino officers have been interviewed to head the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, the chief UN administrator in the territory said yesterday.
A number of Asian nations are keen to dilute the influence of neighbouring Australia, which leads the multinational intervention force in East Timor known as Interfet.
However, East Timor leaders have rejected the idea of ASEAN leadership of a UN administration or of the peacekeeping force which it includes.
The Association of South East Asian Nations includes both the Philippines and Indonesia.
Mr Ramos-Horta said last month that ASEAN countries had too often sided with Indonesia. On Wednesday, he returns to the territory for the first time since 1975.