SYDNEY - Australian defence planners have always insisted that one of the nation's principal security objectives is to prevent a rival power from setting up a military base in the south Pacific.

So officials in Canberra were alarmed this week when the government of Solomon Islands, a Pacific nation off Australia's north-east coast, confirmed that it would enter a security pact with Beijing - a move that would allow Chinese security forces to be deployed there and could enable the establishment of a Chinese base.