Indonesian forces breaking up a demonstration in East Timor

Human Rights Campaigners Denounce Decision on Indonesia

A delegation of MPs from the all-party Parliamentary Human Rights Group met Mr Cook on Monday in a last-ditch bid to persuade him to revoke the existing export licences for equipment destined for Indonesia.

The group's chairperson, Labour MP Ann Clwyd, said: "We are dismayed at the announcement and that it was made in this way. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jose Ramos Horta, had already told the Foreign Secretary that the situation in East Timor is as bad as at any time during the past 20 years.

"We believe that the decision flies in the face of the human rights policy announced by the new Labour government. The Government should and could stop the export of equipment to this brutal regime."

The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Howard, accused him of "smuggling" out the details to avoid having to answer questions in the chamber and said the Government was showing "arrogance" and "contempt for Parliament".

Mr Howard told Speaker Betty Boothroyd in a point of order: "The Foreign Secretary has just answered a written question setting out the criteria that will be used in considering licensing applications for the export of conventional arms."

He demanded: "Was it not yet another example of this Government's contempt for Parliament?

"And is smuggling this statement out three days before the recess not just a crude attempt to deny the House the opportunity to question the Foreign Secretary on its contents? Are you, too, powerless in the face of this further display of arrogance from this high handed Government?"