The Solomon Islands Foreign Minister, Patterson Oti, has rejected claims by his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, that he wants to destroy the Regional Assistance Mission, RAMSI.
Mr Oti said all he demanded of the Australian-led mission was respect for the authority of the elected government of Solomon Islands and acceptance of its national development priorities.
He said RAMSI had been operating as a parallel government in Solomon Islands since the Sogavare Government was elected in May last year.
Mr Oti said the review of the Facilitation of the International Assistance Act which legalised the operation of RAMSI would focus on fine-tuning that Act to ensure the mission's operation was in line with the government's development policy.
He said if RAMSI was genuinely concerned about lasting peace in Solomon Islands then it must work in harmonious partnership with the government in implementing the policy instead of working against it and fuelling fears that violence would recur if it was to leave soon.
