Democratic congressman Barney Frank, lead a chorus of voices calling on Prime Minister John Howard to give a time frame to settle the deal, saying an agreement should be possible within three to five years.

In a letter to the PM, and signed by 53 of his congressional colleagues, Frank said Australia should "move seriously and expeditiously in negotiations with East Timor to establish a fair, permanent maritime boundary and an equitable sharing of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea."

The timing of the rebuke couldn't have been worse. Last night the Opposition blocked the Government's attempt to push through bills giving legislative force to the international unitisation agreement (IUA) between East Timor and the Greater Sunrise partners -- Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas.

The IUA sets the amount of revenue East Timor can take from Sunrise and is essential for the $6 billion development to proceed, but it will now be sent before a committee for review.

At stake are billions of dollars worth of reserves from existing and future gasfield developments in the Timor Sea. East Timor is pushing its claim for the resources by calling for the boundary outside Australia's economic zone to be moved to a mid-point between the two countries, giving the tiny state access to billions of dollars in revenue from existing and future fields.

Currently under the May 2002 Timor Sea Treaty Australia and East Timor have agreed that 20.1% of the Sunrise field should be in the Joint Petroleum Development Area, where East Timor is entitled to 90% of production.

However, the IUA provides that the revenue split can be redetermined by agreement at any time and on the final delimitation of maritime borders.

The legislation would put pressure on East Timor to ratify the IUA. Now with heavyweight international backing East Timor has indicated it will not ratify the agreement unless Australia commits to a timetable for talks on the maritime boundary.