Solomons peace talks due to start

A new attempt to end two years of ethnic violence in the Solomon Islands is taking place today with talks on board a New Zealand ship .

More than one-hundred delegates are due to attend the meeting, scheduled to continue for three days.

Fighting between rival militias on the main island of Guadalcanal -- the Malaita Eagle Force and the Isatabu Freedom Fighters -- has left more than sixty people dead and forced thousands from their homes.

Ethnic tension dating back to colonial times developed into fighting in 1998 when the indigenous Isatabu community tried to evict the immigrant Mailata people, resentful over Mailata economic dominance. On Wednesday, the islands' deputy prime minister, Allan Kemakeza, appealed to the Isatabu Freedom Movement to release his brother, who had been kidnapped in an armed raid on Monday.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service