2-11 to 2-15

By Tito Belo

DILI, Feb 11 (Reuters) - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta was stable after he was shot in the stomach during an attack on his Dili home by rebel soldiers, Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa said on Monday.

The president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle for East Timor's independence from Indonesian occupation, was being operated on by an Australian military medical team in Dili after the pre-dawn attack by the gunmen.

"I was in the heliport and yes, he's in a stable condition, his life is not endangered," da Costa told CNN television, referring to a heliport at an Australian military base in Dili where Ramos-Horta was taken.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the assault and an East Timor soldier was also seriously wounded, military spokesman Domingos da Camara said.

Da Costa said Ramos-Horta would be flown to the Australian city of Darwin for further treatment and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was in charge of the country. It was still unclear who carried out the attack, he said.

"We haven't had confirmation (that Reinado and his renegades were involved)," da Costa said. "At least two of them had military uniforms," he said, which pointed to the involvement of rebels.

The military said attackers in two cars were involved in the raid on the president's isolated home at 4.30 a.m. International security forces placed a cordon around the house and were patrolling Dili's streets to prevent fresh violence.

Asia's youngest nation has been struggling to claw its way back to stability after plunging into chaos in 2006 when the army tore apart on regional lines.

The factional bloodshed two years ago killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes, with foreign troops needed to restore order between warring neighbourhoods.

Reinado has led a revolt against the government and has been charged with murder during the 2006 factional violence. Rebels loyal to Reinado fired on Australian troops patrolling near Dili earlier this month, an Australian commander said at the time.

Security analyst Alan Dupont, from Sydney think tank the Lowy Institute, said the shooting was grim news for East Timor.

"I'm afraid the promise of independence has faded quite considerably over the last couple of years," Dupont said.

"It is seriously going to destabilise East Timor further at a time when they looked to be recovering from the problems of the last 12-18 months."

Australia's government was being briefed on the shooting as senior ministers met in Canberra and a statement was expected later on Monday. Australia has around 800 troops in East Timor as part of an international security force.

Australia's government re-issued its travel warning for East Timor after the attack, saying the security situation remained fragile, with the risk of violent civil unrest.

"The situation could deteriorate without warning," it said.

It said increased tensions were likely in February due to changes in food distribution and negotiations between the government and former soldiers. (Additional reporting by Rob Taylor in Canberra; Writing by Ed Davies and Rob Taylor; Editing by David Fogarty

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Exxon Mobil Corp.'s attempt to freeze $12 billion in Venezuelan assets a case of U.S. ``economic sabotage'' and said such behavior could drive him to cut off oil supplies.

A cutoff would drive oil to $200 a barrel, Chavez said today on his ``Alo, Presidente'' weekly talk show on state radio and television.

``If you freeze us, if you don't stop trying to freeze, doing us damage, we can do you damage,'' Chavez said. ``We won't send oil to the U.S. Get this, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger. If the economic war continues against Venezuela, the price of oil will reach $200. Venezuela will take up the economic war.''

Crude oil for March delivery rose $3.66, or 4.2 percent, to settle at $91.77 a barrel Feb. 8 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has dropped 8.3 percent since reaching a record $100.09 a barrel on Jan. 3.

Supporters of the Venezuelan government have previously blamed the U.S. for the Exxon Mobil lawsuit. Chavez's statement was the first time he has held Bush responsible for the suit.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey, asked whether the U.S. had coordinated with Exxon on the lawsuit, said as far as he knew Exxon had pursued the case on its own.

He told reporters in Washington on Feb. 8 that the U.S. position was that any nationalization or expropriation of property should be done according to international standards and regulations, ``and that very specifically includes fair-market- value compensation.''

Chavez previously warned that the price of oil may reach $200 if the U.S. interfered in Venezuelan elections on Dec. 2.

Exxon is suing Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, in international arbitration for the seizure of control and a majority stake in a multibillion-dollar oil production project in Venezuela last year.

The U.S. oil company said it won court orders in the U.K., Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles blocking the state oil company from selling assets and transferring wealth out of those countries if moving the money would reduce available assets below $12 billion.

Exxon also won a U.S. court order seizing as much as $315 million that would otherwise have been transferred to Petroleos de Venezuela as part of a bond buyback transaction last month, according to federal court filings in New York.

Venezuela provides about 7.7 percent of U.S. consumption, either directly or through its Hovensa LLC joint venture in the U.S. Virgin Islands. While that removal would affect the U.S. oil market, it would be costly to Venezuela, which sends more than half of its production to the country Chavez calls ``the empire.''

Venezuela counts on oil income for 90 percent of its foreign exchange and half its federal tax revenue. Petroleos de Venezuela also provides social services outside the budget, such as the company's sale yesterday of 252 tons of powdered milk in neighborhoods near the Puerto La Cruz refinery.

The country can't easily send oil to new countries because most of the world's refineries that are able to handle Venezuelan crude are in the U.S.

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East Timor president wounded in rebel attack