Lifetimes of low-lying levels in the one- and three-quasiparticle bands in [Formula Presented]Ce have been measured using the recoil-distance Doppler-shift technique. The [Formula Presented] transition strengths extracted for the negative parity yrast states are well described by the triaxial-rotor-plus-quasiparticle and the geometrical models, but the interacting-boson-plus-fermion predictions are too small by about a factor of 3. The [Formula Presented] values extracted for the levels in the positive parity three-quasiparticle band are consistent with the previous [Formula Presented] configuration assignment to this band. © 1997 The American Physical Society.