DILI - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and critically wounded at his home in Dili on Monday in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers that analysts said could spark renewed violence and political chaos in the tiny nation.
Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped injury in another attack also on Monday morning, officials said.
Australia pledged to send more troops to Asia's youngest nation after the apparently coordinated attack on East Timor's two most famous independence figures.
Residents in Dili reported the capital appeared calm and Gusmao said Ramos-Horta was in stable condition after the attack in which a key rebel leader was killed.
The president, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Carlos Belo for their nonviolent struggle for East Timor's independence from Indonesian occupation, was operated on by an Australian military medical team in Dili before being flow to Darwin in northern Australia for treatment.
"This is a serious attempt on a democratic state," Gusmao told a news conference.
An Australian medical spokesman said Ramos-Horta was in a critical but stable condition.
"He has suffered major wounds and he has had massive blood transfusions. They are potentially life-threatening," said a spokesman for CareFlight medical evacuation organisation after Ramos-Horta landed in Darwin.
"He has been placed on full life support, including an induced coma and ventilator to assist his breathing. That is standard procedure."
The former Portuguese colony of almost 1 million people gained independence in 2002 in a U.N. sponsored referendum after more than two decades of brutal Indonesian occupation.
But it has been unable to achieve stability.
Tensions rose this month after rebels loyal to rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was blamed for Monday's attacks, fired on Australian troops patrolling near Dili.
"Prime Minister Xanana is going to have to work very hard to ensure the government retains its cohesion. It's a crisis now," said Damien Kingsbury, associate professor at Australia's Deakin University.
COORDINATED ATTACKS
