SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Asylum seekers armed with pipes overran guards and set fire to a dining room in a detention center on a remote Australian territory Tuesday in the latest of a string of alleged arson attacks on the government-run camps.
An Immigration Department spokesman said it was not known what triggered the incident at the Christmas Island camp, which ended after talks between the two sides. Detainees returned to their compound, but the dining hall had been gutted, she added on condition of anonymity.
In western Sydney, fires broke out late Tuesday in the Villawood detention center, firefighters said. Immigration officials said a ``major disturbance'' had broken out at the camp. Further details were not immediately available.
The incidents came as officials accused detainees of attacking guards who tried to put out a series of raging fires deliberately set at a high security Outback immigration center on Tuesday. The Australian government denied its tough policy on asylum seekers was in crisis.
``Officers were pelted with stones and threatened with metal bars as they tried to extinguish the fires which, driven by strong winds, spread rapidly and eventually destroyed two compounds'' at the Woomera camp, the immigration department said in a statement.
The Australian government vowed not to soften its hardline policy of locking up asylum seekers despite the violence and fires at Woomera _ and two other blazes at other camps during the last three days. All fires were started by inmates, the government said.
The blaze at Woomera, central Australia, destroyed two accommodation blocks, five toilet blocks and two mess halls.
``There is a lot of unrest from people who are I guess protesting against judgments that they are not entitled to stay in this country,'' Prime Minister John Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``That is something that we are not going to allow to alter our policy.''
The fires at Christmas Island _ a remote outpost in the Indian Ocean south of the Indonesian island of Java _ were the second there this month.
Detainees at the facility, who have all had their applications for refugee visas rejected, destroyed an accommodation block and the mess hall on Dec. 7, officials said.
There has also been alleged arson attacks by asylum seekers held at the Port Hedland detention center in Western Australia and at the new Baxter center in South Australia state.
The fires have caused more than $3.9 million worth of damage.
Refugee advocate Marion Le said Tuesday the arson attacks were the actions of a small number of desperate people _ some of whom have been held in the remote and spartan camps for years _ rather than an orchestrated campaign.
Some 1,200 illegal immigrants, most from the Middle East and South Asia, are being held in the camps while their applications for asylum are considered or while they wait to be sent home.
Australia's seven detention centers have been plagued by riots, fires and acts of self-mutilation by inmates, drawing international criticism of the nation's immigration policies.
