HONIARA (AFP) -- The parliament of the Solomon Islands will elect a new prime minister next week following Manasseh Sogavare's ouster in a no-confidence vote, the opposition said Friday.

Sogavare lost power on Thursday when he lost the vote 25-22 after being accused of jeopardizing the Pacific island nation's relations with other countries, particularly Australia.
Opposition leader Fred Fono said nominations for the premier's post would open Saturday and a vote was expected next Wednesday.
""Thereafter the prime minister will be sworn in and the announcement of cabinet ministers will be made on Thursday and Friday,"" said Fono.
The no-confidence motion was moved by former Education Minister Derek Sikua, who criticized Sogavare for putting international relationships in jeopardy and for his protection of controversial attorney-general, Julian Moti.
Sikua is tipped to be nominated as the opposition candidate Friday, making him frontrunner to become the next leader.
""If the nominations come my way I would put my hand up and accept it,"" he told AFP.
Fono said the opposition, which holds a majority in parliament, would select their candidate for the top job later Friday.
Sogavare, in power in the turbulent and impoverished nation for less than two years, is the country's first prime minister to be removed from office through a no confidence motion.
He had been locked in a long-running and bitter confrontation with Australia since last year when he expelled the Australian ambassador and as Canberra tried to extradite Moti on child sex charges.
Sogavare had flatly refused to either extradite Moti or refrain from appointing him to the country's top legal post, infuriating Australia.
But like his former boss, Moti's days in Honiara could be numbered as the opposition has vowed to remove the attorney general and extradite him.
""We are going to extradite him to Australia to clear his name -- but that will be confirmed by the new Cabinet to be formed,"" Fono said.
In October, Sogavare boycotted the Pacific Islands Forum of leaders from 16 regional nations over his opposition to Australian dominance of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which is formally under the forum's control.
RAMSI started as an Australian-led armed intervention in 2003 to end five years of bloody ethnic strife in the Solomon Islands.
Security was beefed up across Honiara ahead of Thursday's no confidence vote, with police and military personnel deployed at key locations.
Police say security measures will continue until next week's election.