Australia plans Solomons rescue

Australia is to send a navy ship to the Solomon Islands to evacuate 700 Australians and other nationals, after fierce fighting between two rival ethnic militias.

HMAS Tobruk, an amphibious landing ship, is due off the capital Honiara on Thursday afternoon.

Ulufa'alu: Call for peace

New Zealand said that its frigate Te Mana is due to arrive on Saturday morning to prepare for a possible evacuation of about 225 of its nationals.

Fierce jungle fighting between the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) and the rival Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM) broke out on Wednesday, two days after the MEF seized control of Honiara.

They are holding Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu under house arrest.

The situation is you have two sides about to embark into a bloody conflict which could cost hundreds if not thousands of lives

Phil Goff, New Zealand Foreign Minister

MEF negotiator Andrew Nori on Wednesday signed a deal with the government that would have let Mr Ulufa'alu go free until a vote of no confidence could be held in the parliament next Thursday.

But a Solomon Island Broadcasting Company report said that his house was still surrounded by armed men on Thursday.

He said in a broadcast on Wednesday evening that he had not resigned, and called for the militias to cease fighting.

"If they can all go back to their pre-coup positions it will enhance our position...so the process of peace talks, the process of negotiating...can move forward and be realised," he said.

Bloodbath fear

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said on Thursday that he feared the rebel fighting could soon worsen.

Heavy armed rebel groups are taking up positions in the jungle around Honiara

"The situation is you have two sides about to embark into a bloody conflict which could cost hundreds if not thousands of lives," he said on New Zealand National Radio.

Rebel migrants from the island of Malaita are fighting to avoid being thrown off the main island of Guadalcanal - where Honiara is situated.

They have stepped up their battle against indigenous Guadalcanal islanders with weapons that were stolen in a raid on the armory shortly before they captured the prime minister.

Mr Goff said another top official, Governor-General Sir John Latli, was also under house arrest on Thursday, although an SIBC journalist said he did not believe that was the case.

The governor-general is the representative of British Queen Elizabeth II, who is head of state for the Solomon Islands, formerly a British colony.

Mission

Mr Goff said he and other ministers from Commonwealth countries hoped to visit the Solomon Islands soon.

There are fears that thousands could die if fighting flares up

However at present the airport is closed, as the front line of the recent fighting is near the eastern end of the runway.

Two British mediators who fled the Solomon Islands on Wednesday said their plane was strafed at the airport.

MEF leader Andrew Nori said that about 100 of IFM fighters were machine-gunned to death by Malaita forces firing straight into a big crowd of Isatabu militants on Wednesday, but there is no independent confirmation of this.