Jose Ramos-Horta to be East Timor prime minister

DILI, July 8 (Reuters) Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta is to be East Timor's new prime minister, President Xanana Gusmao told reporters today. ''I have met with the Fretilin party ... Jose Ramos-Horta is to be prime minister, first deputy prime minister is Estanislau da Silva and the second deputy is Rui Araujo,'' he said after a meeting with leaders of the country's dominant political party.

Ramos-Horta had been a spokesman abroad for East Timor in its struggle to gain independence from Indonesian occupation and then its foreign minister when it won nationhood.

He was acting as temporary coordinating minister since Mari Alkatiri stepped down as prime minister on June 26.

Rui Araujo has been health minister, while da Silva was agriculture minister and is a senior Fretilin parliament member.

Fretilin has 55 seats in the 88-member parliament.

Alkatiri was broadly blamed for violence which erupted after he sacked nearly 600 members of the 1,400-strong army when they protested against discrimination.

The tiny Pacific country, which broke free from Indonesian occupation in 1999 and became fully independent in 2002, was thrown into chaos when protests over the sackings spiralled into violence and looting that peaked in May.

At least 20 people died and 100,000 were displaced in the violence, which continued sporadically even after the arrival of Australian-led peacekeeper.

REUTERS KD PM1405