JAKARTA, April 30 (Reuters) - Three army rebels accused of being involved in attacks on East Timor's president and prime minister in February will be deported from Indonesia next week, Indonesia's police chief said on Wednesday.

The three were arrested in Indonesia earlier this month. A fourth rebel soldier, who may have known about plans to attack President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, was arrested separately in Indonesia.

"We will bring them to Dili and hand them over there," police chief Sutanto told reporters after talks with Gusmao, who is on a five-day visit to Indonesia. He declined to give a date.

The rebel troops were part of a group of disgruntled soldiers who fled from the army in 2006. The army split along regional lines when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.

The rebels' leader, Alfredo Reinado, was killed during the attack on Ramos-Horta, who was critically wounded.

Sutanto said two of the soldiers were present during the attack on Ramos-Horta while the third took part in the ambush on Gusmao's convoy, but none of them fired shots.

Gusmao escaped the attack unharmed.

The fourth detained soldier was already in Indonesia when the attacks took place, Sutanto said.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it later that year, maintaining a huge and sometimes harsh military presence and fighting rebels for more than two decades.

On Tuesday, Gastao Salsinha, who took command of the rebels after Reinado's death, and about a dozen of his men surrendered to the authorities in East Timor, raising hopes that the troubled young nation can find some rare stability.

Ramos-Horta, who recently returned to Dili after recuperating for two months in Australia, upset Jakarta by suggesting that elements from neighbouring Indonesia were behind the plot.

But later he said he was referring to East Timorese in Indonesia and not the Jakarta government or its military. (Reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Ahmad Pathoni; Editing by David Fogarty)

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