East Timor police appear to be disintegrating-UN

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Reuters) East Timor's police force appears to be disintegrating despite the arrival of Australian commandos in the capital Dili, according to the U N peacekeeping chief said.

Heavy fighting raged around Dili, much of it between members of the Timorese armed forces and its national police, Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U N undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, said yesterday.

The national police force was reported to be in ''total disarray'' due to growing tensions between the tiny country's east and west, he said, with both soldiers and police officers splitting away from the government to join rebel factions, Guehenno said in a briefing to the U N Security Council.

About 150 commandos arrived and secured Dili airport ahead of the deployment of 1,300 Australian troops expected in coming days after weeks of unrest in the world's newest independent nation.

Help was also on the way from New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia, at the request of East Timor's government, after a military police unit rebelled and Dili's own forces failed to calm the situation.

The council was weighing late on Thursday a statement welcoming the four countries' offers of assistance. China asked for a delay so it could consult its government before voting.

''The situation in Dili is reported to have deteriorated further today as several violent incidents took place, with serious implications for law and order,'' Guehenno said, according to a text of his briefing to the 15-nation council.

In the most serious incident, Timorese soldiers opened fire on unarmed police, killing nine officers and wounding 27 other people, including two U.N. police advisers, Guehenno said.

The top priority for the international community was to help stabilize the situation, he told reporters after addressing the council.

Once calm was restored, East Timor's leaders could try to determine what caused the violence and take steps to ease divisions that could fuel future outbreaks, he said.

''With a swift display of force in Dili, the violence can be stopped very quickly. We would hope that with the forces that are already being dispatched ... that the violence will be stopped,'' he said.

East Timor became independent four years ago after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, 24 years of occupation by Indonesia and 2-1/2 years of U N administration.

U N peacekeepers left a year ago and a U N mission which once numbered 11,000 troops and civilians was scaled back to 130 and scheduled to shut down on May 20.

But riots broke out in Dili in late April after the cash-strapped East Timor government dismissed 594 soldiers, and there has been sporadic violence since then.

REUTERS DH RN0539