Howard holds urgent talks with Solomons PM

By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN Herald correspondent

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is flying his Solomon Islands counterpart, Sir Alan Kemakeza, to Canberra today for urgent consultations as he refocuses Australia's post-Iraq security agenda closer to home.

The talks have been prompted by deteriorating security in the Solomons, where 30 people have been killed this year.

They come as the Federal Cabinet contemplates a major shift in Australian policy towards the South Pacific region.

In what will be a radical departure from Canberra's previous hands-off approach, direct intervention in the growing Solomons crisis is under active consideration by the Australian Cabinet's National Security Council (NSC).

"The Prime Minister has come back from the United States determined to refocus the Government's security priorities on our own backyard," a senior Government official in Canberra said yesterday.

"Once he made the decision to stay on, he got very interested in sorting out the Solomons and it is his judgment that he will have the support of the broader Australian community for this."

Options the NSC is considering range from full-scale military intervention on the East Timor model to provision of a multilateral police force largely funded by Australia.

A A$40 million ($45.3 million) peace process financed by Australia following a coup in 2000 failed, largely because of the collapse of policing.

The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force is severely compromised by the involvement of many senior officers in the coup which overturned the government of Prime Minister Bart Ulufaalu.

Australia's High Commissioner to the Solomons, Bob Davis, said yesterday the restoration of the rule of law was critical to any prospect for recovery.