DILI, East Timor (CNN) -- At least four shooting incidents involving Indonesian military forces and pro-Jakarta militias were reported in East Timor Thursday as international peacekeepers raced to keep East Timor's devastated capital under control.

CNN correspondent Maria Ressa said it appeared that one burst of gunfire came from Indonesian troops driving by in trucks. It was not clear if anyone was hit.

About 20 Australian troops rushed inside an Indonesian military compound to investigate another shooting incident, and were later seen departing the building with Indonesian forces close behind them.

Peacekeepers also arrested at least three suspected militia members believed to be involved in other shooting incidents.

The shootings erupted hours after the peacekeepers collected weapons from pro-Indonesian militias and sent an advance team into Bacua, the territory's second-largest city.

Earlier Wednesday, peacekeepers raided the Dili headquarters of one of the province's most feared pro-Indonesia militias, arresting six men and confiscating a number of documents.

The building, a headquarters for Eurico Guterres' Aitarak militia, was empty when peacekeepers arrived, but the six armed militiamen arrived later.

Aitarak and other pro-Jakarta militias -- supported by elements of the Indonesian military -- are believed to be responsible for the wave of brutality that erupted after East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. The violence left thousands dead and most of Dili a burned-out shell.

Thousands more fled into the mountains to escape the murderous rampage, setting a humanitarian crisis into motion.

Guterres, rallying pro-Jakarta forces in West Timor, vowed that the fight for East Timor was not over.

"East Timor will continue to seethe and there will be the possibility of a civil war" unless an acceptable solution is found, Guterres said.

The militia leader suggested a division of East Timor granting a portion of the half-island to pro-Indonesia forces.

Although the peacekeepers have encountered little resistance from pro-Indonesian militias in Dili, peacekeeping force commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove said the security situation outside the capital remains dangerous.

"It is too early for us to assert that the security situation overall is anything approaching benign," Cosgrove said.

An Australian peacekeeper detains a man

Cosgrove is concerned that the peacekeeping force will face resistance as it fans out through the countryside.

"It has been quite a dangerous 24 hours," Cosgrove said. "It would appear that the militia have attempted to step up some activities as a show that not all is secure."

The multi-national force, expected to reach 7,500-strong, numbered about 3,000 on Wednesday.

Soldiers already have detained half a dozen people found with weapons and may have to conduct house-to-house searches to disarm militia members outside Dili.

The body of a Dutch journalist -- believed to be the first Westerner to die in the conflict -- was found in a suburb of the capital on Wednesday. Thirty-year-old Sander Thoenes, a reporter for London's Financial Times newspaper, was killed when six men in Indonesian military uniforms fired at him was he was traveling on a motorcycle, the cycle's driver said.

With order largely restored in East Timor's capital, the international peacekeepers extended their reach beyond Dili for the first time since their arrival Monday.

About 150 troops stepped off helicopters and secured the airport in Baucau, East Timor's second largest city. Baucau's airport, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Dili, can accommodate heavy transport planes carrying troops and relief aid for refugees.

International peacekeepers are on high alert

The United Nations estimates as many as 300,000 Timorese have been made homeless by the upheaval. Another 140,000, including both supporters and opponents of independence, have fled the bloodshed to West Timor.

Nearly all the refugees are facing severe food and water shortages.

The United Nations and aid agencies have assembled food and medical supplies in northern Australia for airlifts in East Timor, but logistical problems at Dili's small airport and bureaucratic delays in Jakarta have hampered efforts.

Thousands of desperate East Timorese looted warehouses in Dili on Wednesday, hauling off sacks of rice, flour and cooking oil before peacekeepers turned back the hungry crowds. The looters were among the thousands who returned to Dili after hiding for days in nearby forests and mountains.

The group Medicins Sans Frontieres said it was frustrated that the United Nations was using planes into East Timor to ferry journalists alongside military troops, but had so far left out aid workers.

"I can't understand why they are not allowing us to go to Dili and help these people," said medical coordinator Susanne Christofani. "We can be operational within hours."

U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst, however, argued that securing the area was a priority before the aid agencies could begin their work.

Air drops resumed Wednesday after being put off during two days of military flights. Four C-130 Hercules cargo flights dropped desperately needed foodstuffs into East Timor.

A fifth flight was expected to carry U.N. aid officials, conducting a preliminary survey of the humanitarian crisis

Pakistan says it will be forced to step up its nuclear and missile capabilities because of India's recently announced nuclear doctrine.

Speaking at the annual UN General Assembly in New York, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, accused India of planning a huge arsenal of land, sea and air-operated nuclear weapons.

"The international community must act - and it must act immediately - if it is to avoid a hair-trigger security environment in South Asia," Mr Aziz said.

He called for the UN to establish an international conference of nuclear powers to promote "strategic restraint and stability" in South Asia.

The Indian Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, said India was disappointed by what he called the compulsive hostility of Pakistan.

"India's commitment to global nuclear disarmament remains undiluted," he said.

India unveiled its draft nuclear doctrine in August. It proposed a nuclear weapons policy based on the principle that such weapons would only be used in retaliation following a nuclear attack by an enemy. It also said that India should continue to develop nuclear arms.

A year ago at the UN General Assembly the leaders of India and Pakistan both gave conditional undertakings to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty by this September.

The BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent Barnaby Mason says now the atmosphere is gloomier and the prospect of an accelerating nuclear arms race looms larger.

Last year, within days of India's first nuclear test, Pakistan followed with its own.

This year the world's two newest nuclear nations came close to war. Both sides lost hundreds of soldiers in the Himalayan region of Kashmi, after India accused Pakistan of attempting to seize land.

The two countries have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

While no money was put on the table, Pastrana said a $1.5 billion proposal in the Senate offers "a good starting point" in meeting his goal of $3.5 billion in U.S. and other foreign help. The Colombian government itself would come up with the remaining $4 billion for the plan, he said.

"We need this help, this support urgently," he said at the end of a day of meetings, expressing the hope that Congress would approve increased aid before it adjourns for the year.

Some members made public statements objecting to Pastrana's efforts to negotiate with leftist rebels, but he said no one raised the issue with him during a day of supportive meetings.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said that while no figure was mentioned when he met with Pastrana Tuesday night, the bank wants to help Colombia "deal with the social impact of the anti-drug campaign and the country's other economic programs."

Wolfensohn's pledge of support came as Pastrana was lobbying members of Congress to back his three-year plan, which President Clinton has praised.

"We had a very good meeting," said Pastrana after a 45-minute session with members of the House International Relations Committee. "We hope to get good results" when Congress considers aid, he said.

A bipartisan proposal being offered by Sens. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., and Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, would create a $1.5 billion, three-year anti-drug alliance with Colombia and its neighbors, with the bulk of funds going to help the Colombian military and police.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., among those meeting with Pastrana, criticized his governments' contacts with the FARC leftist rebels, who are also linked with the drug trade.

"The utopian solution President Pastrana and the State Department are searching for does not exist," said Burton.

But Pastrana got a generally positive reception in a day of Capitol Hill meetings.

"A great deal of support was express by our committee today," said Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House international panel, as he shook hands with Pastrana after their meeting.

Pastrana also received support from Clinton on Tuesday in New York for his plan, which also would involve negotiating peace with leftist guerrillas behind the drug trafficking. But Clinton made no aid commitment, U.S. officials said. Despite U.S. pressure on Colombia, coca and opium poppy production are up sharply.

Colombia is already among the top U.S. aid recipients, getting $300 million this year for its anti-drug efforts. U.S. officials have said the bulk of financing for Pastrana's three-year plan would have to come from Colombian sources and international lenders, who he hopes will contribute $3.5 billion.

Colombia's economic crisis is deepening. The country's credit rating has been downgraded, the peso has been devalued nearly 30 percent so far this year and the government late Tuesday announced a plunge in economic output.

Pastrana told reporters Colombia wants tariff breaks like those contemplated for Central America. Unless Congress goes along, he said, Colombian products would stop being competitive. "We are going to insist that we need their help," he said.

Another economic priority, he said, is to wean Colombian farmers away from narcotics plants through development of alternate crops.

Pastrana was upbeat about prospects for curbing narcotrafficking and ending leftist rebellions. "If we defeat the narcotraffickers, we also defeat the guerrillas," he said.

On Capitol Hill, the Clinton administration was criticized more than Pastrana was for the failure to stop the flow of drugs from Colombia.

Clinton has written Republican leaders asking for cooperation in providing increased aid to the South American nation.

But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said any such aid should not be just "another long list of goodies without thought as to purpose and result." Grassley said he would introduce legislation to require the administration to develop a detailed strategy on Colombia within the next six months.

"It is embarrassing that we have so little before the Congress or the American public by way of serious policy or honest discussion on what we are to do," he said at a hearing Tuesday.

MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denounced an agreement that transforms the Kosovo Liberation Army into a modestly armed civilian force, calling the move a ''thoughtless political act.''

The ministry said the formation of the Kosovo Protection Corps threatened peace in Yugoslavia and went against UN agreements.

The agreement on the civilian force ''goes against the letter and spirit'' of a UN Security Council resolution that called for the KLA and other paramilitary groups in Kosovo to be demilitarized, the statement said.

''All measures must be taken to involve the former KLA in peaceful life,'' the Foreign Ministry statement said. ''Otherwise, Russia will be unable to take responsibility for the possible negative consequences of this thoughtless political act.''

The agreement, signed Monday night by the KLA and NATO-led peacekeeping force, transforms the KLA into a 5,000-member Kosovo Protection Corps, which will perform humanitarian missions and help rebuild Kosovo after 18 months of ethnic warfare.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara said he reached no breakthrough Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on resuming Israeli-Syrian peace talks, which were suspended three years ago.

"The progress has not been achieved yet. There is no breakthrough," al-Shara said after meeting Albright on the fringes of the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

The United States has been working as a mediator, searching for a formula to bring Israel and Syria to the negotiating table without losing face.

Both sides have expressed eagerness to renew talks. On a trip to Europe this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared, "Now is the time" for a peace treaty with Damascus.

"I believe that it serves the strategic needs of Israel" Barak said. "It serves at the same time the strategic needs of Syria."

The stumbling block to bringing Israel and Syria together has been determining a starting point for the talks. Syria is insisting that Israel first agree to fulfill a promise that Damascus said was made by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before he was assassinated in 1995.

Demilitarized Golan Heights sought

According to Syria, Rabin pledged to withdraw Israeli troops from the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967. Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich, who served as Rabin's negotiator at the time, was more ambiguous about what was offered.

"What (Rabin) was saying was, 'Without a full withdrawal from the Golan, (Syrian President Hafez) Assad will not make a deal. And I am willing to make a deal with Assad providing he meets my needs,'" Rabinovich said.

Israel says it needs an early warning system to alert it to Syrian military mobilization. It wants the entire Golan Heights demilitarized, with all Syrian armor and artillery withdrawn to Damascus.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said Wednesday that Israeli leaders were willing to hold peace talks "any time, any place."

Levy said, "The Syrians should stop hesitating. If they really want peace, there's no better way than direct talks -- face to face. We hope to have that happen as soon as possible."

Barak meets with Chirac

Barak met French President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Wednesday, praising French and European efforts to jump start peace talks with Syria. While the Israeli prime minister said he preferred direct negotiations with Damascus, he added "it is possible that in the future we will call upon those of goodwill to help us strengthen the peace process."

Chirac wants to play an important role in Middle East peacemaking as a counterweight to U.S. influence. The French leader held an unexpected meeting with al-Shara over the weekend, and was expected to be carrying a message from the Syrians for Barak.

Chirac, who had frosty ties with Barak's hawkish predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared buoyed following the meeting.

"After my meeting with Mr. Barak, I am much more optimistic than before," he said.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Northern Irish Protestant leader David Trimble came under attack Wednesday for meeting the Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein just days after he supported a legal challenge against the guerrilla group.

The criticism pitched Trimble into a potentially damaging dispute as he joined a drive by U.S. mediator George Mitchell, the former senator from Maine, to revive the British province's stalled peace process.

Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Northern Ireland's main Protestant political group, defended his action but senior UUP official Jeffrey Donaldson warned of rising concern in the party and suggested it should soon end its talks with Sinn Fein.

Trimble was assailed by rival Protestant parties for cooperating with Mitchell, who brought Sinn Fein and the UUP together Tuesday for their first high-level talks in three months.

The sharpest barbs came from Michelle Williamson, whose parents were among 10 victims of an IRA bomb in 1993. She was supported by Trimble Monday when she won High Court permission to contest Britain's recognition of the IRA's two-year-old cease-fire.

The bombing, a year before the first of two IRA truces, struck horror across the province's sectarian divide between the Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority.

``I have been inundated with phone calls from people asking me to explain ... why he was there Monday supporting me in my fight for justice and then, the next thing, he was there yesterday talking with IRA-Sinn Fein,'' Williamson said.

``I am just fed up having to explain Mr. Trimble's actions yesterday to every Tom, Dick and Harry,'' she told BBC radio.

Trimble said there was ``no inconsistency'' in supporting both the legal action and Mitchell's efforts to rescue last year's Good Friday peace accord.

Trimble's party is divided about the accord, which some key figures regard as a sell-out.

But he insists it offers the province the best chance for stability after 30 years of turmoil and strife.

Donaldson said the party's ``mixed signals'' were sowing confusion, adding: ``It is causing concern and clearly there are divisions within the party on these tactics.''

``I think the party needs to reach a point where it says, 'Right, we've gone as far as we can go,' and actually to continue in direct dialogue with Sinn Fein-IRA while at the same time they are mixing with violence just isn't credible any longer,'' Donaldson said.

Mitchell, who chaired the talks that produced the Good Friday accord, is back in the province trying to broker an end to deep mutual Sinn Fein-UUP mistrust.

Trimble refuses to share power with Sinn Fein in a planned provincial government unless the IRA disarms. Sinn Fein insists it is committed to democracy and brands Trimble's stance as a breach of the agreement.

Mitchell had intensive talks with parties Wednesday but there was no sign of an imminent breakthrough.

He is likely to meet British and Irish officials Thursday before returning for the weekend to the United States.