DILI - TIMOR LESTE President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Friday that he would not pursue the job of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, confirming earlier media reports.

'I have decided not to put forward my name as a candidate for High Commissioner for Human Rights,' he told a press conference in Dili.

'An early departure from my current responsibility would result in early elections and this would be an unfair burden on a people who went to the polls three times in 2007.' The 58-year-old Mr Ramos-Horta won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his struggle for Timor Leste's independence from Indonesia. He survived an assassination attempt in February after being elected president of Asia's youngest nation last year with a five-year term.

Timor Leste is struggling to achieve political and social stability following violence in 2006 that killed 37 people and forced 150,000 people from their homes.

The former Portuguese colony, invaded by Indonesia in 1975, won independence in a violence-marred vote organised by the United Nations in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration. -- REUTERS