A Libyan Foreign Ministry official on Thursday denied Australian charges that Libya was responsible for a riot in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, JANA news agency reported. The Libyan agency, monitored in Rome, quoted the unidentified official as dismissing allegations of Libyan involvement as ``baseless and not true.'' Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia had charged ``there is no doubt about a Libyan connection in Vanuatu'' following reports in the Australian news media that Libyan-trained activists were involved in Monday's violence. JANA quoted the Libyan source as saying such a statement represented ``a plain attempt to justify the open Australian interference in the internal affairs of an indepedent state _ Vanuatu.'' Riots in Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, killed one person was killed and injured nine Monday. Police said 30 people were arrested after a march by 2,000 villagers over land-leasing rights turned violent, with protesters looting shops and smashing store windows. Australia and New Zealand airlifted riot control gear there at the request of the government. Vanuatu lies about 1,200 miles east of Brisbane, Australia. Vanuatu sent shockwaves through the generally pro-Western South Pacific in 1986 when it decided to establish diplomatic ties with Libya and the Soviet Union. Formerly the Anglo-French New Hebrides, Vanuatu was administered jointly by Britain and France from 1906 until 1980, when it achieved independence. It has a population of about 130,000.
