UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday again called on Indonesia to disarm and disband militias in West Timor, as U.N. personnel were threatened at a weapons hand-over ceremony.

In a statement, council members "expressed deep concern" at the incident, which took place Sunday in the town of Atambua, site of a large refugee camp close to the border with East Timor.

A small U.N. delegation attended the ceremony, which was staged by the Indonesian army in the presence of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Monday that after Sukarnoputri and other Indonesian officials had left, the U.N. delegation was threatened by a pro-militia crowd, and was "only able to leave after the crowd dispersed about an hour later."

Eckhard quoted the head of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Sergio Vieira de Mello, as saying the incident confirmed the inability of the Indonesian authorities to bring the militias under control.

In their statement, members of the Security Council "reiterated their call for the government of Indonesia to disarm and disband the militia."

The event comes as Indonesia states that it is serious about disarming militias in West Timor, and will arrest those who fail to surrender their firearms by the Wednesday deadline, the defense minister said Tuesday.

"On the Atambua matter, we are giving them until tomorrow [September 27] to surrender weapons, after that there will be sweeps and arrests," Defense Minister Mahfud Mahmudin told journalists after a meeting on political and security affairs.

"This is serious," Mahfud added.

Indonesian authorities launched a voluntary weapons surrender effort on Friday after the U.N. Security Council issued a resolution in the wake of the militia murders of three unarmed U.N. relief workers in Atambua, a border town in West Timor.

The three, staff of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), were murdered on September 6. The U.N. resolution demanded the Indonesian government immediately disarm and disband the militias.

A top U.N. official in East Timor on Monday described the Indonesian army attempts to disarm the militias as "pathetic."

Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of UNTAET, said he was not surprised by the ineffectiveness of what the army has called "the persuasive phase" of its efforts.

"I personally never took the persuasive phase seriously," he said.

"I do not believe that the militia will voluntarily surrender their weapons, and if they do they would probably surrender the old ones and keep the modern ones."

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Vieira de Mello was speaking in Dili, the capital of East Timor, before leaving for New York, where he is to brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday.

The military has said the voluntary disarmament process will be followed by forcible seizures of any remaining weapons.

Pro-Indonesian militias, backed by soldiers, launched a week of wanton terror, killings and destruction in East Timor in September in the wake of the pro-independence ballot there.

The militias forced some 300,000 people to flee from East to West Timor but followed in their steps when international peacekeepers began to arrive in East Timor.

They have since continued to control the refugee camps in West Timor and have been accused of intimidating refugees to prevent their return to East Timor and of harassing relief workers.

They have also been accused of using West Timor, especially the border refugee camps, as launching pads for forays into East Timor.

On Tuesday, New Zealand units of the U.N. peacekeeping force (UNPKF) in East Timor clashed with three miltiamen near the border town of Suai. One militiaman was killed, but the New Zealanders suffered no casualties, Major Gwansoo Byun told AFP by phone from the East Timorese capital of Dili.

"We had a contact with three militiamen three kilometers [1.8 miles] east of Suai. As a result one militia was killed and the others withdrew," Byun said.

"After that, the contact between us and the militia was broken," he said adding that a search for the other two militiamen was continuing.

Byun said no further details were immediately available of the clash.

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