Wellington, Sep 22 (IANS) Controversy is brewing over the appointment of an Indian origin lawyer as the attorney general of the Pacific island nation of Solomon Islands.

Julian Moti, an Indo-Fijian holding Australian citizenship, was appointed to the post Thursday but the legal fraternity, the country's main opposition and the Australian government have vociferously protested the move, according to reports received in the New Zealand capital.

Moti was banned from entering the Solomon Islands, a country of nearly 1,000 small islands east of Papua and New Guinea, in 2003 for interfering in domestic issues.

Prior to that, he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in the neighbouring country of Vanuatu, a case which he had settled after the victim's family initiated a civil action suit against him. This year he was seen as the man behind the move to expel the Australian high commissioner from the Solomon Islands.

"The Australian government is deeply concerned and disappointed at the appointment of Moti," a report in the Sydney Morning Herald quoted a spokesman of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs as saying.

Andrew Radcliff, lawyer in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara and a member of Solomon Islands Bar Association, said that he was surprised at the attitude of the country's Judicial and Legal Service Commission in appointing Moti.

According to a Radio New Zealand report, Radcliff said that he does not know why the Commission did not look at the list of reasons the association had earlier put in to oppose Moti's appointment.

Fred Fono, the country's leader of the opposition, while condemning the appointment, said that his opposition group would meet Friday and make its official position known.

Moti had studied law at Sydney University and acquired Australian citizenship thereafter.

He is seen as a personal friend of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.