East Timor president serious but stable

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was in a serious but stable condition on Tuesday in an Australian hospital, but medics were planning more surgery for up to three gunshot wounds, a senior doctor said.

Ramos-Horta was critically wounded at his home in Dili on Monday in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers and was airlifted to Darwin on life support and in an induced medical coma after treatment at an Australian military hospital.

"We'll have to go back to theatre, probably in the next 24 to 36 hours for some staged surgery, but at this stage we're looking at quite stable," Dr. Len Notaras, general manager of Royal Darwin Hospital, told local radio.

"The president's injuries are serious injuries."

Notaras said the Nobel peace prize winner was on a ventilator to assist his breathing and his most serious injury was a bullet wound in his right lung. Ramos-Horta also had a small bullet fragment still in his body that posed no threat.

"His condition is quite good from the perspective that if he needed to breath by himself, he would be capable of doing that," Notaras said.

Around 200 fast reaction troops from Australia and more police will arrive in Dili on Tuesday to back up international forces who put the capital under a 48-hour curfew after the attack, in which rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed.

An Australian warship was also expected off the coast.