Honiara, Aug 25: Australian Prime Minister John Howard got a royal welcome in the Solomon Islands today when he paid a one-day visit to the strife-torn South Pacific nation to review a 2,225-strong Australian-led peacekeeping force. Hundreds of placard-waving schoolchildren in uniform lined the road from the near-bankrupt nation's main airport into the ramshackle Capital Honiara in a public ceremony locals said they had not seen since Britain's Queen Elizabeth visited decades ago. Howard, who sent the force in last month to end ethnic tensions and prevent the former British protectorate becoming a base for international criminals and, potentially, terrorists, said the intervention had already worked miracles.

Around 3,000 weapons and 300,000 rounds of ammunition have been handed in by rival Guadalcanal and Malaita Island militias and the public under a 21-day amnesty which expired on August 21.

Key militia leaders responsible for five years of fighting that killed hundreds, drove thousands from their homes and led to a police-backed coup in 2000 have surrendered or pledged to make peace. But Howard warned that the more difficult phase of the multinational mission had only just begun now that the Australian, New Zealand, Fijian, Tongan and Papua New Guinean Police and troops would have to hunt out hidden arms.

Bureau Report