East Timor independent leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta will meet Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed during their three-day official visit to Kuala Lumpur early next week, a Foreign Ministry official confirmed today.

"The leaders will meet the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar, Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak and other government agencies during their visit here," the official, who asked not be identified, told malaysiakini .

He, however, was unable to give further details. "We are still working on the itinerary of the visit," he said.

Xanana and Gusmao are scheduled to be in Kuala Lumpur on Feb 7-9, as part of a six-nation, 18-day East Asian tour which began on Jan 23.

They have so far visited China, South Korea, Singapore and are currently in Thailand. The East Timor leaders will meet Philippines' President Joseph Estrada in Manila tomorrow before leaving for Kuala Lumpur.

According to a member of the East Timor delegation, Gus Mitlat, who is also the co-ordinator of Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor and the International Federation on East Timor, Xanana and Ramos-Horta had met South Korea's President Kim Dae Jong, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Thailand's Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai during the trip.

"Among the main objectives of the tour are to seek understanding, cooperation and diplomatic relations with leaders of Asean and East Timor," Mitlat told malaysiakini in Bangkok this afternoon.

In addition, the leaders are also getting feedback on the possibility of East Timor becoming a member, or at least, observers of Asean.

While in Kuala Lumpur the leaders are also scheduled to attend a close-door meeting with Malaysian NGOs. The meeting, organised by local NGO, Solidarity With East Timor, will be followed by a public forum to be held at the Federal Hotel in Jalan Bukit Bintang at 9pm on Tuesday.

Asked whether the government would have problems with the East Timor leaders meeting with NGOs, the Foreign Ministry official said that "the leaders will be official guests of the government but other organisations could also arrange their own meetings with them".

The visit of the two former East Timor guerillas is expected to open old wounds. The Malaysian government had never supported the struggle for independence in East Timor. In 1996, a government-organised mob violently stopped the Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (Apcet II), which was held at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

The conference, organised by a number of Malaysian NGOs, sought a peaceful resolution to the East Timor conflict. The fracas resulted in the arrests of 60-odd local participants and the deportation of all foreign delegates. In addition, the government had kept mum on the killing of Malaysian student Kamal Bamadhaj in the 1991 Dili massacre by Indonesian troops.

Gusmao, a former guerilla leader, was arrested in 1992 and later jailed in Indonesia for 20 years on firearms charges and for plotting against East Timor. He was released from prison last year to head a newly independent East Timor after a historic referendum. Ramos-Horta, a Nobel laureate, had been the leading international spokesman for East Timor's cause since the half island was invaded by Indonesia in 1975.