DILI, East Timor - President Jose Ramos-Horta, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers earlier this year, said Thursday he was considering taking a new job as the United Nations human rights chief.
Ramos-Horta told members of parliament last week that he already had "accepted the job,'' even though UN officials could not confirm he was a candidate.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was expected to explain his plans at a press conference Thursday, but delayed the announcement amid consultations with his political allies, including Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, church leaders and representatives of civil society.
"On the one hand yes, it's time to move on and to accept the challenge of being UN High Commissioner of Human Rights,'' he told reporters, asking for another 24 hours to make up his mind. "At the same time, I love my country, I love the people who elected me.''
The early departure of Ramos-Horta, whose five-year term ends in 2012, would require East Timor to hold elections within 90 days. That could fuel political instability and possibly violence, which has plagued Asia's youngest democracy since it won independence from Indonesia six years ago.
Tens of thousands of citizens still live in squalid tent camps after gunbattles between government troops and mutinous soldiers killed dozens of people in 2006.
In February, rebel troops shot Ramos-Horta twice, nearly killing the 58-year-old, and ambushed Guzmao's motorcade without injuring the prime minister.
Earlier Thursday, lawmaker Aderito Hugo da Costa and one other legislator said Ramos-Horta told parliamentarians he had already accepted the UN job, which opens Monday when Canadian Louise Arbour steps down.
East Timor broke free from Indonesia following 24 years of often-brutal rule. Ramos-Horta shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with fellow countryman Bishop Carlos Belo for leading a nonviolent struggle against the occupation.
