A soldier searches people coming into the capital yesterday, outside Dili, the capital of East Timor. Additional troops arrived as East Timor declared a state of emergency yesterday after rebel attacks on the country's top leaders left the president in "extremely serious" condition with gunshot wounds.

DILI, East Timor (AP):

Foot soldiers searched cars for weapons and armoured UN vehicles guarded East Timor's leaders under a state of emergency declared after rebel soldiers critically shot the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president and fired at the prime minister's convoy.

The army chief yesterday blamed the United Nations which oversees a 1,400-member international police force for failing to protect the country's two top leaders and demanded an outside investigation.

Ramos-Horta was airlifted to an Australian hospital where surgeons said yesterday he was "extremely lucky to be alive'' after they operated for three hours to remove bullet fragments and repair chest wounds.

"His condition remains extremely serious but, by the same token, stable,'' Dr Len Notaros, the general manager of the Royal Darwin Hospital, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "The next few days will be the telling point.''

East Timor, a poor nation of 1 million people, won independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a UN-sponsored ballot. It has struggled to achieve stability since an outbreak of violence in 2006 when 37 people were killed in clashes between rival security forces.

Over 1,000 troops

Ramos-Horta

Australia's troop presence in the tiny Southeast Asian nation climbed to more than 1,000 yesterday, with the arrival of a Navy warship, which was moored off the coast in sight of the capital's harbour, and more than 300 police and soldiers.

Some patrolled the streets and searched cars at roadblocks in Dili, but the country was generally calm.

Ramos-Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for non-violent resistance during 24 years of Indonesian occupation, was shot in the chest and stomach on the road in front of his house in an apparent coup attempt by a group of disgruntled soldiers.

His guards returned fire, killing wanted rebel leader Alfredo Reinado who was blamed for the 2006 violence and vowed publicly just two weeks ago to try again to destabilise the government.