The United Nations Security Council is to extend its peacekeeping mission in East Timor until the end of this year and will gradually phase it out after that.
The mission has about 1000 police and military advisers, most of them from New Zealand and Australia.
They were deployed in 2006 to help the government in Dili maintain order and security.
East Timor is to hold presidential elections in March, requiring a continued UN presence on the island.
