Two Australian Navy transport ships are heading towards Timor Leste in case of further unrest in the country.
Earlier this week, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, said the situation in Timor remained unstable following riots by soldiers in which at least five people were killed.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, says HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora will now be in a position to respond quickly if a request for help is made.
"They are obviously being deployed and what the ADF does is to make sure that the assets of the Australian Defence forces are used in such a fashion that if requests for assistance do come, we're in a position to respond to them quickly."
The move has been endorsed by the federal opposition leader, Kim Beazley.