Australia strongly defended its military's response to an assassination attempt on East Timor's leadership after injured President Jose Ramos-Horta said they could have done more to capture his assailants.

Ramos-Horta was critically injured when he was shot twice in on Febraury 11, when gunmen loyal to rebel leader Alfredo Reinado launched early-morning attacks on the president and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Dili.

Now recovering in Australia's northern city of Darwin, where he was taken for medical treatment, Ramos-Horta said more of the rebels who tried to kill him could have been caught if Australia-led troops had immediately locked-down the capital Dili.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he had spoken to Ramos-Horta by phone in the past few days, and he defended the actions of Australia's military and its response to the attacks.

"I think our Australian forces handled this very effectively on the ground, I defend their absolute professionalism in how that was dealt with in very trying circumstances," Rudd told reporters in Washington.

"The fact that Jose was able to be got to the international medical facility at the Australian base in Dili so quickly, frankly is a large part of the reason why we were able to help Jose pull through."

Ramos-Horta told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television he lay bleeding on ground for 30 minutes after being shot, before being picked up by an ambulance which did not have a medic on board. He said he was not angry about the Australian response, but said the Australian forces, under the United Nations command, could have done more to capture the attackers. He said Australian medics and soldiers saved his life, giving him blood transfusions at an Australian military base before he was flown to Darwin for emergency surgery.

"I would say that Australian-led forces could have promptly surrounded the entire town, closing all the exits, using helicopter, sending immediately elements to my house to get the information on the ground," he said.

"They would have captured them within hours, because for many hours after the attack on my house they were still in the hills around my house."

Reinado was killed in the attack but other rebel soldiers managed to escape and many have still not been captured. Gusmao escaped unharmed from an attack on his car.

Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon also defended the military response to the shooting. "Of course, the president was in no position really, at the time, to properly judge the timing," he told Australian radio.

East Timor, Asia's youngest nation has been unable to achieve stability since its hard-won independence from Indonesia in 2002.

The army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.

Australia has about 1,000 troops and police leading an international force helping to keep order in the former Portuguese colony of about one million people.