The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Canberra

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta hinted on Tuesday he was thinking of retirement, nearly two months after almost losing his life in an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers. "I will address the parliament when I return and I will not promise the country that I will serve the full-term," Ramos-Horta told The Australian newspaper. Ramos-Horta was elected last year until April 2012. The presidency, under East Timor's Portuguese-based constitution, is largely ceremonial, with power resting with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped a simultaneous assassination attempt on the same day. Ramos-Horta, 58, is convalescing in a safe house in the northern Australian city of Darwin after being shot twice and almost dying in the February 11 assassination bid by rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was killed in the attack. He said he no longer needed to remain president, given the success of National Parliament president Fernando Lasama de Araujo's who has fill-in since the attack.