Anzacs ready for battle

New Zealand troops heading for East Timor yesterday received united parliamentary backing for the dangerous mission as Australian Prime Minister John Howard fired a warning to Indonesia.

As the Anzac advance guard - likely to include 40 New Zealand SAS soldiers - prepared to land this weekend, Mr Howard said any attacks by Indonesian troops would provoke "a much stronger level of intervention and retaliation."

In East Timor, a militia leader says militiamen are volunteering to attack and kill troops of the multinational force.

But Mr Howard indicated Indonesian aggression would bring a more powerful response from the United States, which has so far committed around 200 support troops to the mission. The Pentagon has said that number could rise if Australia wants more help.

Mr Howard said attacks by Indonesian armed forces were unlikely, but he could not discount the possibility of casualties.

Bands of militiamen, some backed by the Indonesian Army, have killed thousands during a two-week rampage after the overwhelming vote on August 30 for East Timorese independence.

The risks New Zealander troops will face were voiced yesterday in a sombre four-hour parliamentary debate which unanimously backed the mission.

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said the calculated killing, violence and looting inflicted on people who simply wanted to be free "ripped at the hearts, the minds, the conscience of us all."

"New Zealanders cannot stand by and do nothing," she said.

Labour leader Helen Clark said she was confident the New Zealand troops were world-class professional soldiers who would meet the challenge.

Alliance leader Jim Anderton said the troops' sacrifice to the cause of democratic independence deserved the highest respect.

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark, a former serviceman, asked groups seeking defence spending cuts to think again.

Military secrecy surrounds the advance force's exact landing time, but reports suggest it could be in the East Timor capital, Dili, today or tomorrow.

The Australian commander of Interfet (International Force for East Timor), Major-General Peter Cosgrove, is expected in Dili today to talk to the commander of the Indonesian military on handing over its security role.

HMNZS Canterbury left Auckland last night on its troop escort mission while the rest of New Zealand's initial contingent of 420 soldiers is in intensive training at Linton and Waiouru Army camps.

They are awaiting the call from the UN and Australian defence headquarters but are expected to leave for the Australian staging post in Darwin in the next few days.

Meanwhile, the Army, which is without its own ship, has chartered a private freighter to transport the soldiers and 25 armoured personnel carriers across the Tasman.

Yesterday, the Indonesian military commander in East Timor, Major-General Kiki Syahnakri, said he hoped his 20,000 troops would withdraw from the territory within a week of the international force's arrival.

However, the Indonesian armed forces commander, General Wiranto, was reported as taking a more cautious line, saying his soldiers were planning to take part in the peacekeeping force.

Reuters last night quoted a militia leader as saying pro-Jakarta militiamen had volunteered to fight and kill troops of the multinational force.

The leader, Domingo De Deus, also threatened to start a guerrilla war in Australia.

The militias have condemned the participation of countries they regard as favouring East Timor independence.

"At this moment entire components of the Command of the ProIntegration Struggle in East Timor have registered themselves as volunteers ready to face the United Nations forces," De Deus said.

"We are ready to kill and to be killed.

"If necessary we will go to Australia and have guerrilla warfare with the white people there."