A group of men from an American security firm contracted to provide firearm training to police in Papua New Guinea have been stood down from operations due to community concerns.

Key points: PNG asked the security firm to provide firearms training after Australia refused

PNG asked the security firm to provide firearms training after Australia refused Police in PNG say the men had been conducting raids and drug busts

Police in PNG say the men had been conducting raids and drug busts There is uncertainty about whether or not the men's activities are legal

The five men were reportedly seen carrying automatic weapons in residential streets around PNG, alarming Port Moresby residents and giving rise to rumours that candidates in PNG's upcoming elections were hiring foreign mercenaries to intimidate opponents.

PNG police commissioner Gari Baki said the men will remain in the country until the Government decides how to proceed.

"The men are still in the country. I spoke to them a day ago," Mr Baki said.

"We've stood them down on the activities they have been undertaking.

"They will remain here until I complete the appropriate process that is required."

The Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC) had asked the Laurence Aviation and Security Group to give officers firearms training — after the Australian Federal Police refused — ahead of PNG's hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next year.

Mr Baki said earlier this week that the men from the US security firm had been in PNG determining the scope of work for further training, adding that he had authorised the men to carry the weapons and accompany police.

"They've conducted raids, they've dealt with drug busting in the city," he said.

"You don't know about it, but these are things we are doing behind the scenes."

But it was uncertain whether such activities are legal in Papua New Guinea.

Australian Federal Police officers were thrown out of PNG in 2005 because the Supreme Court found it was unconstitutional to give police powers to people who were not part of the PNG police force.

The former governor of Morobe Province, lawyer Luther Wenge, who lodged that court challenge, said private security contractors could not legally take part in police work.

"They cannot act as a policeman or they cannot do the duty of policing in PNG, because the constitution of PNG is very clear that the power of arrest and the power of detention and power of charging rests purely with the Royal Papua New Guinea police force," he said.

Firearms training not part of police partnership: AFP

But while the PNG Constitution bans outside agencies from undertaking police work, Mr Baki said that the US contractors were only there to observe.

"They were appointed as special constables ... they were at the back looking what our policemen and women were doing particularly in raids," he said.

"And frankly they have corrected a lot of those misbehaviours our men were doing."

Since 2005, Australia has spent millions of dollars on a second AFP deployment to Papua New Guinea that started in 2008, three years after officers were kicked out.

To avoid legal problems, the 73 officers in the country now are only allowed to be unarmed advisors without powers of arrest.

In a statement earlier this week, the AFP said more than 50 officers had been given special roles related to APEC, including developing the capacity of the PNG police.

But, it said: "Training of an armed response unit is not a part of the policing partnership."

Mr Baki said this week he had been forced to use private security because Australia would not provide training in the use of high-powered weapons.

"I'm very happy and very thankful with the progress of what we're doing [with Australia]," he said.

"It's this aspect of it. If the Australians can assist me in the provision of firearms training to the RPNGC, I wouldn't have gone out [to private contractors]."