Crucial session of Solomons' parliament, NZ troops wait

5.30pm

UPDATE - New Zealand officials were watching and waiting today as a crucial emergency session of Parliament in the strife-torn Solomon Islands got underway.

The session may give the green light to New Zealand police and military moving into the troubled nation in an Australia-led force of 2000 police and peacekeepers.

Debate on the plan to restore law and order in the near-bankrupt South Pacific nation will begin in the capital Honiara tomorrow.

Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza recommended the Solomon Islands Parliament endorse a request from Governor General Sir John Inilapli, for Australia to head an intervention force.

Inilapli yesterday formally requested Australia send a force to combat rising crime and violence in the nation of 480,000 people, 3800km northeast of New Zealand.

The Parliament is expected to endorse the call by Sir Allan for outside help so that his government can regain control of the near-bankrupt nation.

It may pass enabling legislation to provide a legal basis for an intervention already approved by the Solomons cabinet and the Australian and New Zealand governments.

New Zealand High Commission staff would monitor the debate, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff told NZPA tonight.

There was no indication how long it might go on. A decision was expected this week.

Mr Goff said it could take up to a fortnight.

"I think once they've made the decision and passed the empowering legislation, people would want to respond reasonably quickly," he said.

"We need to be working with people, not over them.

"This is not neo-colonial, this is not a deputy sheriff working in the Pacific."

If approved the plan will result in the largest military deployment in the region since World War 2, when the Solomons were the scene of some bloody battles.

Australia hoped to send the force by the end of the month, once the plan is approved by the Solomons Parliament.

Mr Goff previously estimated New Zealand could sent about 40 police and up to 200 military personnel.

Intervention has widespread support in the Solomons, a former British protectorate devastated by years of ethnic clashes and a 2000 coup.

Few expect Parliament to oppose it, but it is fractured.

Allegiances switch frequently and some fear militia leaders with a stake in ongoing chaos could influence individual politicians.

The New Zealand Cabinet had agreed New Zealand should take part in the intervention force, providing police and soldiers to help restore law and order.

Details were being worked out.

Cabinet recognised the need to move carefully, and be aware that it was easier to get into a situation than it was to get out of it, Mr Goff said.

"To help the Solomons make the changes that it needs to make could take years," he said.

"But that doesn't mean a military presence would take that length of time -- that could be very short-term."

Australia is considering significantly larger numbers, and has plans to keep troops on navy ships offshore.

According to a policy statement obtained by Reuters, the main task of the force would be to re-establish security in Honiara, the capital.

Last Friday, rebel warlord Harold Keke, blamed for up to 50 killings that have been part of the violence, offered the government a unilateral cease-fire after three years of brutal defiance of its rule by his armed militants.

Kemakeza said his Cabinet would consider the cease-fire proposal this week.

Hundreds of islanders died in fighting between Guadalcanal and Malaita islanders before the 2000 coup.

Now gunmen still roam at will, holding the government to ransom and beheading, torturing and raping villagers.

Once known as the "Happy Isles", the Solomons yesterday celebrated 25 years of independence.

The intervention force will confiscate weapons, reform the police, strengthen the courts and prison system and protect key institutions such as the Finance Ministry.

Once Honiara has been secured, it will try to bring peace to the rest of the fractured and impoverished country, where per capita income has halved since independence in 1978 to just $500.

- NZPA