The first troops from a multinational intervention force arrived in the troubled Solomon Islands on Thursday.

Thirteen Australian transport planes began moving troops, police and equipment to the country, an archipelago of mountainous islands in the South Pacific.

The 2,300-strong force constitutes the biggest military deployment in the region since the Second World War.

SOLOMON ISLANDS Capital: Honiara Area: 28,450 km sq. (five times the area of P.E.I.) Population: 494,786 (2002 est.) Prime Minister: Sir Allan Kemakeza Canadian imports from: $55,366 (2002). Includes art, antiques, tools, knit apparel, machinery. Canadian exports to: $148,609 (2002). Includes Machinery, tools, electrical machinery, optical instruments. Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

The force is led by Australians, but includes troops from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and New Zealand.

The Solomon Islands' government requested intervention because it has lost control to armed militants and criminals amid corruption in the police force, government and public service.

Sir Allen Kemakeza, Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, is hopeful the military intervention will be successful.

"The men and women...will assist us to return law and order, recover our economy and restore a lasting peace," said Kemakeza.

Ethnic tension between the people of Guadalcanal and Malaita, which are neighbouring islands, erupted in the mid-1990s and led to a coup in 2000.

A peace deal signed later that year failed to stop the violence.

Nick Warner, special co-ordinator of the Intervention Task Force says troops are not on the islands to take on the rebels, but will do so if necessary.

We will act if "criminals seek to sabotage our assistance, endanger public safety or prevent police from doing their duty," said Warner.