The Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Greg Urwin, says member nations need strong and ethical leadership and better laws to deal with security issues.
Representatives from around the region were given the message at a two day Forum committee meeting in Auckland on security issues.
Susanna Gordon from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, says the second day of the meeting will address internal issues.
"We'll be looking at ongoing work at developing leadership, leadeship codes. There may be some agreement to look at land registration since land issues are often at the basis of a lot of internal security threats so there's a lot of practical work that comes out of these programme. And, a lot of those areas will be fed in to the Pacific plan."
Ms Gordon says recommendations will be given to Pacific leaders for consideration at the Pacific Forum summit later this year.
