Some 209 Malaysian troops will leave for Dili late today to help restore order to East Timor which has been wracked by violence since an uprising by rebel soldiers, officials said.

A Defence Ministry official said the contingent made up of army, navy and air force personnel would be transported to Dili aboard three C-130 transport aircraft.

However, Defence Minister Najib Razak said they were still waiting for final clearance after the government receives a report from a 25-member advance party which arrived in East Timor early Friday.

"We are preparing the main body and depending on the report by our team there, we'll make a decision tonight or tomorrow morning," he said according to the official Bernama news agency.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that a quarter of the 40 Malaysian embassy staff and their families in East Timor would be evacuated.

He said he hoped that Malaysia's involvement would "contribute to the regional peace and security".

"Our participation is at the request of the Timor Leste themselves, they spoke to our leaders... and we have already decided to go. If we send, we will make available our police as well as our armed forces," he told reporters.

On standby

The government said yesterday that some 275 military and 200 police personnel were on standby for deployment. It was not immediately clear if police officers would be sent at a later date.

The first Australian troops arrived in East Timor yesterday to secure Dili's airport. Canberra is planning to send a force of up to 1,300 troops backed by three warships, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers.

Violence erupted in Dili last month after 600 soldiers were sacked when they deserted their barracks after complaining of regional discrimination over promotions in the tiny state, which has an east-west ethnic divide.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was invaded in 1975 by Indonesia, which held the territory until 1999, when a vote for independence descended into brutal violence by Indonesia troops and pro-Jakarta militias.

Malaysia also took part in a UN-backed intervention force to stop the bloodshed. The territory was run by the United Nations until independence in 2002.