Australian public service officials working in an assistance mission to Papua New Guinea have been stood down from in-line duties.
Since March, nearly 40 specialists have been working in PNG's key economic agencies, border protection and the judiciary, under the US$600 million programme.
The Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, and his PNG counterpart, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, have confirmed at a news conference that the Australians are now working only in advisory roles.
Sir Rabbie says the officials won't be exercising any kind of equality on the same basis as they had been, before the PNG Supreme Court declared some aspects of the assistance programme unconstitutional.
Mr Downer says he didn't anticipate a constitutional challenge to the programme.
He says Canberra officials should have foreseen the legal challenge by the Morobe governor Luther Wenge and should have tried to persuade him against it.
Mr Downer says Australia had been told by PNG office of Attorney-General that the programme was constitutional.
Australia says there's no maximum end-date on getting its police officers back into PNG under the programme.
