By Huang Xingwei

    WELLINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Amid tight security, lawmakers in the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands on Thursday ousted Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare through a no-confidence vote.

    The lawmakers voted 25 against 22 in the 48-member parliament to support a no-confidence motion, according to reports from the South Pacific nation's capital of Honiara.

    A government minister abstained, the Solomon Times Online reported.

    Following the vote, Sogavare accepted result of the vote, saying "parliament voted me in and parliament voted me out".

    Before the vote, the prime minister was offered the chance to resign but he refused.

    The vote came more than a month after eight cabinet ministers and four other parliament members defected to the opposition in protest at Sogavare's management of the government.

    The motion was moved by former Education Minister Derek Sikua who said they had lost confidence in Sogavare.

    Sogavare was appointed Prime Minister in May 2006 and led his Grand Coalition for Change Government for just over one and half years.

    He became the first prime minister in the political history of Solomon Islands to be voted out in a no confidence motion since gaining independence in 1978.

    It is expected that the Parliament will meet early next week to elect a new prime minister.

    "It's a victory for the people of Solomon Islands," Pacnews, a Suva-based regional news agency, quoted George Atkin, the opposition spokesman of Solomon Islands, as saying.

    For now, no decision has been made on who will become the Prime Minister, Atkin added.

    Even though, opposition leader Fred Fono has publicly indicated he is not interested in the top job. "If he is approached, it will be a different issue," Atkin was quoted as saying.

    The police forces in Solomon Islands were patrolling on the streets of the capital in case of unrest.

    New Zealand police and soldiers in the Solomon Islands were also on alert Thursday amidst a deepening political crisis and in case of violence.

    Forty soldiers and 35 police officers from New Zealand are part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) which in 2003 ended an ethnic conflict on Guadalcanal, the New Zealand local media Stuff reported.

    A spokesman from New Zealand Foreign Minister's Office told Xinhua that the New Zealand government will watch to find out what will unfold over the next few days.