Move to reduce Australian influence

Melanesian leaders are debating how to reduce Australia's influence in the mission to the Solomon Islands ahead of the Pacific Island Forum.

Their initiative comes in the wake of the deepening rift between Australia and the Solomons and Papua New Guinea.

Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase spent yesterday afternoon locked in a series of tense one-on-ones before joint talks with the leaders of the Solomons, PNG and Vanuatu.

A promise by the four leaders to make a joint statement after the meetings was not met, raising questions about whether they could reach agreement on how to tackle the impasse.

Australia Prime Minister John Howard is due to arrive in Fiji this afternoon. Intimating that Fiji would act as a mediator in the rift, Fijian Foreign Affairs Minister Kali Opate Tavola said his country was the chairman and would have to facilitate the decision-making, resolutions and commonality of views.

Foreign ministers of the four countries were to have discussed proposals to resolve the rift on Friday but they were delayed by the news of the raid on Solomon Island Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's office.

Mr Sogavare and Foreign Affairs Minister Patteson Oti opted not to answer direct questions about whether the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (Ramsi) had a future, with Mr Oti saying all stake holders had to be consulted but their anger towards Mr Howard was clear. Mr Sogavare said the raid was "quite provocative" and "totally unnecessary".

Mr Oti said he believed a lot of Pacific leaders were shocked that "Ramsi officers could stoop so low ... to go to that extent of raiding the most important office of the Government of the Solomon Islands".

Neither he nor Mr Sogavare had yet fully gauged the reaction of the Solomons' public "although we are getting news filtered back to us from the Solomons that if there was any support [for the Australians] it has slowly diminished on the part of the public on the Solomon Islands".

Mr Oti said he had seen Mr Howard debating about Ramsi on television on Saturday night and "a lot of the things he was saying insofar as support for Ramsi were outdated".

On the issue of whether there should be fewer Australians in Ramsi, Vanuatu Prime Minister Ham Lini said: "Well that is what everybody is talking about. We would like to see that happen as well."

He emphasised he was talking about the people managing the force. "We should have an Australian leading Ramsi. The assistant and the others would be from the Pacific Islands."

He also believed that "in one way" Australia's approach to the Solomons was too heavy handed.