(Recasts with denial by Ramos-Horta) By Rob Taylor and Tito Belo CANBERRA/DILI, April 8 (Reuters) - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta denied on Tuesday that he was thinking of retiring, nearly two months after almost losing his life in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers. Ramos-Horta, who is recuperating in Australia, had earlier been quoted by Australian media as saying that he would address parliament when he returned and might not serve his full-term. "I don't have any plan to resign early," he told East Timor's national television and radio, speaking in the local tetum language. He said that many people in East Timor, including church leaders and in the government, as well as U.S. and Australian politicians wanted him to stay on. The president said that if he was to step down he would consult with bishops and the people of East Timor. "My condition has recovered so I will return to Timor Leste soon. I am going to run the president's post when I arrive," added Ramos-Horta, referring to the official name of East Timor. Ramos-Horta was elected last year until April 2012. The presidency, under East Timor's Portuguese-based constitution, is largely ceremonial, with power resting with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped an assassination attempt on the same day. Ramos-Horta, 58, is convalescing in a safe house in the northern Australian city of Darwin after being shot twice and almost dying in the Feb. 11 assassination bid by rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was killed in the attack. The Australian newspaper quoted Ramos-Horta as saying he no longer needed to remain president, given the success of National Parliament president Fernando Lasama de Araujo, who has filled in since the attack. "I'm more at ease because I know that if I step down, there is one or two who can do the job," Ramos-Horta said. Jose Luis Guterres, East Timor's vice prime minister, said he hoped that Ramos-Horta would continue as president because he was the right person for the job. "I think (the) attack has unified all Timorese to work together and all people want him to serve this nation, and from my point of view, he is right man to continue his job as president of the Republic because people are still confident in him," Guterres said. East Timor, Asia's youngest nation has been unable to achieve stability since its hard-won independence from Indonesia in 2002, despite oil and gas resources and a population of 1 million that is one of the world's fastest growing at around 4 percent a year. Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel peace prize, has often said he wished for a quieter life to write his memoirs of East Timor's long struggle for independence from Indonesian rule. "I will know only when I get home to my own house, to the site where I was shot, whether I have recovered. I am generally a very sensitive person, but I can also be cold and strong," Ramos-Horta told the newspaper. Ramos-Horta said he had suffered vivid dreams after the shooting, in which he felt he had been spoken to by a God-like figure while inexplicably being choked by his countrymen. The East Timor army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes. More than 2,500 foreign troops and police remain in the fledgling country to help local security forces maintain stability as many of Reinado's rebel supporters remain in hiding. (Editing by Ed Davies)
Workers from Indonesia's state-run port firm Pelindo rally outside parliament in Jakarta April 8, 2008. Hundreds of protesters threatened to go on strike if lawmakers approved a new shipping bill that ...
