DILI, East Timor -- East Timorese independence hero Xanana Gusmao on Saturday confirmed he will run for president with overwhelming backing to lead the world's newest nation from May 20.

Gusmao said his long-awaited decision was based on "overwhelming requests" from politicians in the former Indonesian territory, which is now under United Nations administration.

The only other candidate to file papers by Saturday's deadline to run in the April 14 presidential election was Xavier do Amaral, a seasoned politician from the Association of Democratic Timor Leste Party, AFP reported.

Do Amaral's candidacy was backed by his own party and Gusmao's by 10 parties. Another four parties failed to submit any preferred candidate.

The winner of the election will spend a month as interim leader before the birth of the new nation on May 20, when the UN is scheduled to hand over administration.

Gusmao, the former guerrilla fighter who spent two decades fighting Indonesian rule from the jungles and mountains of East Timor, has proven a reluctant politician.

But the charismatic 56-year-old leader, who has said he would rather be a pumpkin farmer or photographer, said he had bowed to the inevitable.

"I know that if I become president, I will live in a birdcage," he told a news conference.

"But due to pressure from the public and several parties, I have accepted this nomination," Gusmao said.

Asked if he could lose the April election, Gusmao replied: "It's democracy and I like it better that way."

Gusmao's candidacy was presented to the independent electoral commission, witnessed by the Nobel Peace Laureate Bishop of Dili, Carlos Belo, and several foreign envoys.

One foreign observer said Gusmao had agreed to become a candidate for the 10 parties on condition they "respect his wish as an independent person".

On February 13 Gusmao reportedly said he wished to run neither as an independent nor as a candidate for veteran resistance party Fretilin, which last year emerged the big winner in East Timor's first free election.

The hugely popular Gusmao, who has worked hard to reconcile pro- and anti-Indonesian factions, is seen as a unifying force in the territory after the ravages of Indonesian rule.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and Gusmao assumed leadership of the guerrilla army Falantil in 1981. He was captured in Dili in 1992 and jailed in Jakarta for life.

Gusmao was freed in September 1999, eight days after East Timor voted to separate from Indonesia amid an orgy of violence by pro-Jakarta militias. He returned to the territory the following month.

Gusmao's reluctance to run for office stemmed from a vow he made in 1983 as a guerrilla leader in East Timor's arid mountains, according to Jose Ramos Horta, the Interim Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Laureate.

He did not want to be seen as greedy for power, Ramos Horta has told AFP.

"That's all very nice, but the fact of the matter is we still need him, we still don't have a better person," he said.