JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We know that a failed state in our region, on our doorstep will jeopardise our own security. The best thing we can do is to take remedial action and to take it now.

MARK DAVIS: The message to the Australian public was that the Solomons and other Pacific states posed a terrorist and security threat to Australia. A line repeated constantly and widely without even anecdotal evidence throughout the media.

When Australian troops deployed to the Solomons, it wasn't the threat of terrorists nor the threat of people smugglers nor a sudden concern for the plight of Solomon Islanders, it now seems that the immediate threat to Australia was it could have been Indonesian troops stepping ashore in the Solomon Islands.

According to a highly placed source, intense negotiations were taking place in May this year between the Indonesian government and the Solomon Island government for an Indonesian intervention in the islands. The negotiations with the Indonesians were considerably advanced before Australia discovered them and made an immediate and very firm counteroffer. Throughout May, Solomon Island representatives were dealing with Indonesia in Bali, Honiara and through their respective embassies in Canberra.

MILNER TOZAKA: We're very grateful that Australia has come forward to help us.

MARK DAVIS: Milner Tozaka, the Solomon Island's high commissioner in Canberra, was allegedly at the centre of negotiations with Indonesia, negotiations which came to an end when Australia suddenly decided to intervene.

MARK DAVIS: What offers had the Indonesian government made to the Solomons prior to this?

MILNER TOZAKA: Not that I know of, yeah, we have no any offer from the Indonesian government.

MARK DAVIS: I've been advised that the Indonesian government made an offer to the Solomons to send troops and to provide administrative assistance in May.

MILNER TOZAKA: No, not that I know of. Not that I am aware of.

MARK DAVIS: There was no discussion between yourself and the Indonesian...

MILNER TOZAKA: There maybe some discussions but there is no any formal sort of request made to Indonesian government for an assistance.

MARK DAVIS: The advice I've had is that the Indonesian acting ambassador made an offer to you to send Indonesian troops to the Solomons in May and that was passed on to the Australian Government, is that correct?

MILNER TOZAKA: No, I didn't receive any notification in writing at all for troops from Indonesia to go down to the Solomons.

MARK DAVIS: But there were discussions?

MILNER TOZAKA: Maybe there were discussions. As colleagues were were talking about the problems in the Solomon Islands.

MARK DAVIS: At the very end of April, Australia and Indonesia arranged a regional minsteral meeting to discuss terrorism and people smuggling. But it seems that the Solomon Islands and Indonesia had other items on the agenda. According to Dateline's source, Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Laurie Chan led the discussions for an Indonesian intervention, apparently with the full authority of his Prime Minister, Sir Allan Kemakeza.

JOHN HOWARD: I congratulate you on the strong leadership that you have displayed both in relation to the invitation to Australia and other Pacific island countries to help.

MARK DAVIS: But Kemakeza's warm letter inviting Australia's intervention in June wasn't the first international invitation that he'd made. It was at the Bali ministers meeting at the end of April where a letter from Kemakeza was hand delivered inviting Indonesia's intervention. In the following month, the details were thrashed out in Honiara and in Australia through the Indonesian embassy in Canberra. Milner Tozaka confirms that a series of meetings took place with Indonesia's acting ambassador Imron Kotan in May.

MILNER TOZAKA: The discussion was on how they could in educational and cultural activities, you know.

MARK DAVIS: I can't really see a what the educational and cultural actives would have been in May.

Whatever the nature of those meetings, Milner Tozaka maintains he did not leak those discussions to the Australian Government, a fact confirmed by other sources.

MILNER TOZAKA: I did not convey any sort of discussion that I had with the Indonesian government to Defat here indicating Indonesia considering sending us troops to address the problem in the Solomon Islands, no.

MARK DAVIS: You conveyed that to your own government, though, presumably?

MILNER TOZAKA: Yes.

MARK DAVIS: The acting ambassador to Australia, Imron Cotan, was unavailable to for an interview regarding any negotiations he or his government were involved in with the Solomons. His office issued a brief statement that they were not aware of the concerned matters.

If the discussions proceeded as far as sources suggest, the key question is what was in it for Indonesia. The likeliest answer being to find a Melanesian nation to sure up Indonesia's claim to West Papua, a presence that had become increasingly controversial in the Pacific. Whatever Indonesia's motivation, the critical question remains - what was Australia's motivation for entering the Solomons?

JOHN HOWARD: There's enormous support in my country for our involvement.

MARK DAVIS: John Howard is probably right about the level of public support, but like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there is now a question as to whether we were given the real story behind the deployment of troops to the Solomons.