2,000-strong intervention force bound for strife-torn Solomons

Australian police and troops with shoot-to-kill powers are expected to begin deploying to the violence-wracked Solomon Islands next week.

The first elements of a 2,000-strong force will assemble at a large army base in Townsville, northern Queensland, before flying to the Solomons capital, Honiara, next Thursday.

They will be backed up by helicopters, armoured vehicles and patrol boats in an operation which is expected to last months, if not years.

Yesterday the Solomon Islands parliament began debating a bill which will give wide-ranging powers to the intervention force, including immunity from prosecution, the right to use reasonable force and the establishment of an amnesty to encourage the handing in of hundreds of high-powered firearms.

Australia agreed to send troops and police to the ailing South Pacific country last month, following repeated requests for help from the Solomons government.

The intervention force will include 140 New Zealand police and soldiers, as well as a small number of personnel from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

A Royal Australian Navy ship, the Manoora, will act as an off-shore command centre for the force, which is expected to disarm roving criminal gangs, confront a renegade warlord on the island of Guadalcanal and restore law and order.