Mr Jose Ramos Horta, the East Timorese expatriate leader, has accepted an invitation from Mr Gerry Adams to attend this weekend's Sinn Fein Ardfheis.
Mr Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former foreign minister of a briefly independent East Timor, said yesterday he intended to salute the "humility and courage" of all parties to the Northern Ireland Agreement.
Mr Horta, in a reference to the so far intractable 22-year-old East Timor problem, said: "Such a historical event shows it is possible to solve deeply rooted and extremely complex issues by way of negotiations.
"I hope the wisdom displayed in Northern Ireland inspires the resolution of seemingly stalemate conflicts."
This message has, however, been rejected in Indonesia, where the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, has already said East Timor is "a different case" from that of Northern Ireland.
