CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - TIMOR Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta, critically wounded in an assassination attempt in February, has named the gunman who shot and nearly killed him, an Australian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Mr Ramos-Horta named Marcelo Caetano, one of 600 rebel soldiers sacked after going on strike in 2006, as the gunman who shot him outside the gates of his villa near the capital Dili, the Age newspaper said, quoting Mr Ramos-Horta's brother Arsenio.

'The President recognised him. This man must be brought to justice,' Arsenio Ramos-Horta told the paper.

Mr Ramos-Horta, 58, is slowly recovering in a hospital in northern Australia after five rounds of surgery on two gunshot wounds.

Timor Leste, Asia's youngest nation, under a state of emergency since the attacks, has been unable to achieve stability since hard-won independence in 2002.

The army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, when the 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes. Foreign troops were sent to restore order in the former Portuguese colony of about one million people.

Caetano is believed by authorities to be on the run in East Timor's mountains with other rebels involved in the attacks, including Reinardo's deputy, former army lieutenant Gastao Salsinha.

Arsenio Ramos-Horta said Caetano was shot two years ago during clashes between rival police and the army and his brother arranged care for him for two weeks at his own house while he recovered.

Arrest warrants were issued against 17 people suspected of involvement in the attacks, including Salsinha.

Mr Gusmao said on Monday that he hoped a military exercise to round up the remaining rebels, including Salsinha, would end this week. He warned Salsinha to surrender or face the consequences. -- REUTERS