Solomons refused military intervention

The conflict has sprung out of a dispute over land

Australia and New Zealand have ruled out military intervention in the Solomon Islands, despite the country's repeated requests for assistance.

We can't impose a solution, that's not how the world works

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said "getting peacekeepers to enforce a peace with no political settlement" was "pretty pointless".

"I think this, first and foremost, has to be a settlement negotiated by the parties within the Solomon Islands. Then we can help to hammer it down," he said.

Australia has sent in ships to evacuate foreign nationals from the islands

The Solomon Islands' Foreign Minister Patterson Oti had called for Canberra to send in troops ahead of a parliamentary vote on Thursday.

The Solomons does not have an army, only a police force.

Thursday's vote would decide whether democratically-elected Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu should stay in office.

The prime minister was seized at gunpoint just over a week ago by rebels from the Malaita Eagles Force (MEF) militia who also took control of the capital.

Peacekeeping troops

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Phil Goff also said that his country would only send in troops "if there is a peace to keep".

Two rebel groups have been fighting for 18 months

"If it's a case of two warring parties lined up determined to shoot at and slaughter each other, there's not much point in New Zealand or Australia lining up in between," Mr Goff said.

"We can't impose a solution, that's not how the world works," he said, adding the country needed to find their own solution.

He said he expected problems with the "longstanding Melanesian tradition of payback" and made a comparison to Britain in Northern Ireland.

"There is a real risk that we would be no more successful in a civil war situation than the British military were in trying to keep peace in Northern Island," he said.

Australia and New Zealand have offered millions of dollars in compensation for the 20,000 Malaitans displaced from their land.

The conflict has sprung from a bitter fight over land and resources between the two ethnic groups from the main islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita.

Mr Goff said on Monday that should the local militia "choose the path of war and devastate their economy", there would be no chance of ever getting compensation.