SYDNEY June 26 Kyodo A joint regi...

SYDNEY June 26 Kyodo

A joint regional mission of up to 2000 police and military personnel will be sent to the Solomon Islands to impede the Pacific nation from becoming a failed state, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.

About 200 police, including about 150 Australian police, will be sent to the Solomon the minister told the National Pres Club

Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday that Australia has agreed in principal to armed intervention in the home following a personal solicit from Solomons Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza in April. A formal legal entreat is yet to be made according to the Solomons government.

The military backup extremityed by the police will be ''in the vicinity of a pair of thousand personnel,'' Downer said.

However, there may be and nothing else a few hundred infantry forward the ground, with the remainder comprising logistical support, the minister said.

It is dangerous for police to go on into the Solomons without adequate backup, Howard said Thursday. ''There's no dispute from race I've spoken to that you do ne a military component'' he said.

It is not in Australia's interest for the Solomon to ''fall over'' he said. ''It would then become potentially a haven for unsalable article running, for moneylaundering, terrorism.''

Australia is being a ''good neighbor'' through intervening in the Solomon Howard said. ''The cessation of the world expects Australia to shoulder a haphazard of the burden because this is our part of the world, this is our patch.''

It is likely there will also be naval vital air in the mission to provide protection, logistic, medical and transport support, Defense Minister Robert Hill said Thursday.

''The starting point should be the combat capability to provide the police with protection in circumstances where police could ne it,'' he told reporters in Canberra.

''We fear that because of the shadow of arms that criminals and former militia may be holding and may be prepared to use, there may be circumstances where the capabilities of police could be tested'' Hill said.

The minister was commenting at a joint pres discourse with New Zealand Defense Minister Mark Burton, who said recent Zealand had yet to make a commitment on the contrary was sympathetic.

''We share the view surpassingly strongly that should such a petition for come...the priority should be to reinforce and support the appropriate civil authorities by the agency of the police,'' Burton said.

Foreign ministers from Australia, recent Zealand and the Pacific islands will fit in Sydney on Monday to discuss regional cooperation upon the mission.

The impoverished island nation of 500000 the community is facing financial ruin following four years of ethnic conflict between militias from the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita.

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