Bali, Indonesia  - Amid tight security, Indonesia extradited Monday four rebels wanted in East Timor over armed attacks against the half-island's president and prime minister in February.

The four, identified as Jose Gomes, 28, Digio Lay Carvalho, 26, Ismail Sansao Monis Soares, 26, and Tito Tilman, 25, were wearing red T-shirts and handcuffed, when they arrived at Bali's Ngurah Rai International airport aboard a chartered plane from Jakarta, under armed police escort.

Officers from the Indonesian national police handed them over to East Timor's Attorney General Longuinos Monteiro at Bali airport before their final flight to Dili to face charges over the February 11 attacks.

Monteiro told reporters that if found guilty and convicted of participating in the assassination attempt, the four could face a maximum sentence of up to 25 years. They allegedly crossed the border illegally into Indonesia shortly after the attacks.

Indonesian police arrested the four East Timorese former soldiers - two in a border town in West Timor and two in Jakarta - in the weeks after the failed attacks which nearly claimed the life of President Jose Ramos-Horta.

The president was shot several times when gunmen ambushed him at his Dili residence on February 11 and had to be flown to Darwin in northern Australia for life-saving surgery.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unhurt from a separate ambush on his motorcade a short time later.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed along with another rebel as he led the February 11 attacks on the president's Dili house, which nearly killed Ramos-Horta.

Indonesia occupied East Timor for 24 years, and as many as 200,000 civilians died during that period. Jakarta denies committing any atrocities during the occupation and has claimed the violence in 1999 was not organized by its armed forces.

Tens of thousands of East Timorese fled into Indonesian-controlled West Timor during unrest surrounding the UN-sponsored 1999 vote for independence. Many have since opted to remain in Indonesia.

East Timor, a half-island territory that used to be a Portuguese colony, became an independent nation in 2002 after being administered by the UN for more than two years. (dpa)