About 900 Australian troops have been deployed in Timor-Leste's capital of Dili, and they began to petrol on the streets, trying to separate the fighting factions Saturday as gang fights raged in the city.

Australian troops came under fire Saturday as they were facing the worst street fighting since 1999 when pro-Indonesian militia began a rampage of murder and destruction after East Timor voted for independence, according to the Australian Associated Press ( AAP).

The fighting erupted when groups of eastern Lorosae and western Loromonu people clashed not far from the fortified United Nations headquarters in central Dili.

The heavily-armed Australian troops did not open fire as they kept rival armed gangs apart and helped local residents flee through the smoke-filled streets after many houses and buildings were set ablaze.

AAP quoted an Australian army major, who asked to be unnamed, as saying that the gangs were using hit-and-run tactics, tipping off each other with mobile phones about the whereabouts of Australian patrols.

On Saturday evening, Australian soldiers stopped a group of mobs from charging a hotel in Dili where Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri was about to hold his news conference.

The troops disarmed the gangs, confiscating their machetes, knives, spiked poles, slingshots and arrows.

It was reported that as many as 23 people have died in the past four days. Some reports said the bloodshed was caused by a battle over political power between President Xanana Gusmao and Alkatiri, who said the violence was part of a coup attempt, and it was political not ethnical.

Hundreds of terrified people streamed towards Dili's beachside embassy district and thousands of civilians were seen fleeing by truck out of Dili towards the east under the protection of what appeared to be Timorese-Leste's military.

Others gather at churches, makeshift aid agency camps and Dili airport where Australian troops are based.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Ambassador Ruth Nuttall and an aid official took themselves to the Australian Embassy "because of a possible threat from a mob outside," according to a New Zealand foreign ministry spokesman. The mob later left and the mission was being protected by Australian troops.

The United Nations is preparing to pull out its workers. Non- essential staff and dependants were being evacuated Saturday or Sunday.

Key installations in Dili were put under guard Saturday as final elements of Australia's promised 1,300 troops, with armored vehicles and helicopters, are to be in Dili by early Sunday morning.

Source: Xinhua