By Jill Gralow
DARWIN (Reuters) - Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Ruddmade a lightning visit to East Timor on Friday to pledgesupport after an assassination attempt on the country'spresident.
He later flew to the northern Australian city of Darwin tovisit President Jose Ramos-Horta, who is recovering in hospitalfrom double gunshot wounds.
Rudd shook hands with his East Timor counterpart XananaGusmao, before meeting senior United Nations and Australianmilitary officials in Dili.
"A bullet can wound a president but it never can penetratethe values of democracy," Gusmao told reporters after talkswith Rudd amid heavy security in the capital, whereinternational troops and police locked down streets.
"Our nation is a proud nation. We are ready to progressfrom volatility to stability, and from fear to confidence,"Gusmao said.
Rudd, who sent 200 extra troops and police after Monday'sdouble assault by rebel soldiers on Ramos-Horta's home andGusmao's motorcade, said Australia would stand"shoulder-to-shoulder" with Asia's youngest nation.
Gusmao was unharmed in the attack.
"It's by the ballot box, and not by the barrel of a gun,that the decisions for our countries will be made," Rudd said.Australia has 1,000 troops in East Timor, backing up 1,600United Nations police.
International security forces were sent to theresource-rich but still-impoverished country in May 2006 afterethnic fighting and clashes between rival police and themilitary, which left more than 30 people dead and 150,000living in refugee camps.
Rudd later flew to Royal Darwin Hospital, where Ramos-Hortawas taken on life-support after he was shot by renegadesoldiers led by Alfredo Reinado.
The rebel chief was killed in the ensuing gunfight withpresidential guards.
"HE'S A FIGHTER"
Australian doctors will carry out more operations over theweekend to repair damage to Ramos-Horta's right lung and removebullet fragments.
"He's a fighter. I know old Jose, he's a fighter," Ruddsaid, declining to comment on the president's condition.
East Timor's parliament has imposed a state of emergencyfollowing the latest unrest, with Australian special forcessoldiers hunting rebels in hills near the capital.
The tiny nation's prosecutor-general issued arrest warrantsfor 24 people suspected of involvement in the attacks.
In Dili, the streets were calm and shops, offices and bankswere open. Fears of violence in the wake of the doubleassassination attempt have so far proved unfounded.
"I only hope there will be no more unrest and rebellion.Because of the rebellion, the government imposed the state ofemergency and we can't do anything at night. We just stay athome. It is not good for us young people," said Adriano daCosta, a shopkeeper in central Dili.
Reinado led a revolt against the government and was chargedwith murder after the factional violence in 2006. Later thatyear, he escaped jail with 50 other inmates, embarrassingsecurity forces.
The man who claims to have taken command of rebel soldiersafter Reinado's death, former army lieutenant Gastao Salsinha,on Friday said he would resist capture if located at asafehouse he told Australia's Channel Nine television was inDili.
"I am also a soldier so I have dignity as a soldier. If asoldier comes to attack me I will fight back," he said.
East Timor gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002after a U.N.-sponsored vote in 1999 that was marred byviolence. Indonesian invaded the former Portuguese colony in1975. Many thousands of East Timorese died during the brutaloccupation.
(Additional reporting by Tito Belo and Ahmad Pathoni inDili and Rob Taylor in Canberra; Writing by Rob Taylor; Editingby David Fogarty)
