MORONI, June 16 (Reuters) - The Comorian government wants African Union troops authorised to subdue a rebellious island that elected a local president in defiance of the continental body, the information minister said on Saturday.

Vice-President Idi Nadhoim is at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia to ask for nearly 320 AU soldiers and police already in the coup-prone Indian Ocean archipelago to be given approval to intervene militarily on Anjouan island, the minister said.

"We are waiting for this mandate to transform the AU election security forces into a rapid deployment force to subdue the rebellion of Mohamed Bacar and disarm his militia," Information Minister Madi Ali told Reuters.

Anjouan held polls last Sunday in defiance of the AU. The federal government had postponed them for a week because of security concerns.

Bacar, a former Anjouan leader, was sworn in as its president on Thursday and vowed to continue defying what he said had been a decade of discrimination against the island.

Tensions have risen on the island since Bacar's forces killed two federal soldiers in May and police shot and wounded three civilians earlier this month.

Comoros's three islands, whose total population is 670,000, retain autonomy via local presidencies and share a rotating national presidency. The archipelago has suffered 19 coups or attempted coups since independence from France in 1975.

First settled by Arab seafarers 1,000 years ago, Comoros became a haven for pirates pillaging ships across the Indian Ocean. The rocky islands were annexed by France in 1904.

AlertNet news is provided by