Australia warns S.Pacific its aid comes at a price

NADI, Fiji, Oct 23 (Reuters) Australia, accused of violating the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands, bluntly warned Pacific leaders today to crack down harder on corruption and improve economic management in return for aid.

Prime Minister John Howard arrived in Fiji for a 16-nation forum as a festering diplomatic row over an attempt to extradite the Solomons' attorney-general boiled over into direct defiance by small Pacific states in support of the Solomons.

Hours before Howard arrived, to be greeted by traditional Fijian songs of welcome, four Melanesian members of the Pacific Islands Forum issued a statement condemning last week's police raid on the office of Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

''These actions are certainly a serious violation of Solomon Islands territorial sovereignty and integrity,'' the leaders of Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Solomons and Vanuatu said.

The statement said the raid by Solomons police, with Australian officers present, breached United Nations conventions and was ''provocative and unnecessary''. Howard denied it had been ordered by Canberra.

Police raided Sogavare's office looking to establish how new Attorney-General Julian Moti, wanted in Australia on child sex charges, had managed to re-enter the Solomons on a secret PNG military flight two weeks ago.

Canberra is seeking the extradition of Moti, an Australian citizen and Sogavare's choice as chief legal officer, over an incident in Vanuatu in 1997.

He was arrested in PNG on September. 29 but skipped bail and holed up in the Solomons' diplomatic mission in the capital, Port Moresby.

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