The world's major powers pledged support yesterday for UN efforts in East Timor, but recommended no concrete action.
Virtually conceding the world could do little until Indonesia requested help, ministers from Britain and 19 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum called at an emergency meeting for Indonesia to end the crisis.
All countries were ready and willing to send peacekeeping forces, said New Zealand Foreign Minister Ian McKinnon, who chaired the meeting.
'If order is not restored quickly, if the martial law doesn't work, then you need an international presence,' said Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy. 'But there are differences about how you would go about doing that.' Mr McKinnon said forcible intervention by a UN-mandated military task force would be a last resort if Jakarta allowed massacres by anti-independence militiamen to continue unchecked.
Indonesia repeated its opposition to a UN peacekeeping force in East Timor and denied its security forces were behind the violence that has racked the territory since last week's referendum.
The ministers did not give Jakarta a deadline to restore order, but stressed the urgency of the situation.
