June 14 (Bloomberg) -- East Timor asked the United Nations to create a police force to maintain security for at least a year in the country where ethnic unrest has killed 20 people and driven 133,000 from their homes in recent weeks.

The East Timorese government said a force of about 870 security personnel is needed to maintain law and order, according to a statement e-mailed late yesterday from the capital, Dili.

East Timor wants to discuss the ``need for a robust UN presence, with police, military and civilian components'' to operate in the country, the government said.

East Timor's security forces collapsed after 600 soldiers, about one-third of the armed forces, were dismissed for desertion, provoking clashes between rival groups of soldiers and police that spread to ethnic civilian groups. The country of about 1 million people, also known as Timor-Leste, became independent in May 2002 after people voted in a 1999 referendum to end a 24-year occupation by Indonesia.

Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's foreign and defense minister, wants the UN contingent to have a rapid reaction team operating in and around Dili, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

UN Mission

The East Timorese government also asked the UN to extend by one month the mandate of its mission known as UNOTIL. The mandate expired on May 19.

The UN has been operating in East Timor since 1999, helping the country organize elections and create government institutions. It has reduced the size of the mission in recent years and has more than 100 civilian and military advisers in the country.

``The UN will have to go back to Timor-Leste in a much larger form that we are at the moment,'' Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday after delivering a report to the Security Council in New York. Ian Martin, Annan's special envoy, produced the report after visiting East Timor last month.

The UN should play a main role in helping East Timor hold its general elections in 2007, Annan said in the report. The UN will also have to help the country build its security forces, Annan said, according to the UN Web site.

``We have learned, at a painful price for Timor-Leste, that the building of institutions on the basis of fundamental principles of democracy and rule of law is not a simple process that can by completed within a few short years,'' Annan said in his report.

The UN will investigate the events that sparked the violence in the country. Annan said he asked Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights, to lead an investigating team.

Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal last month sent forces to the country lying about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Australia and have taken over security in Dili.

The UN two days ago appealed for $18.9 million in emergency aid to provide food and shelter for 133,000 people who fled their homes to escape the violence.

An estimated 70,000 people are living in camps in and around Dili, a city of about 150,000 people. About 63,000 people have fled to the countryside, the UN said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 13, 2006 23:25 EDT