A number of Pacific countries have featured in Transparency International's latest Corruption Index survey for the first time.
The 2007 survey, released this week, ranks countries on their implementation of clearly defined anti-corruption policies and practices.
Pacific countries such as Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga are included in the rankings for the first time and most rank in the lower half of the 180 countries surveyed.
Of the Pacific nations, Tonga is lowest at 175th while Papua New Guinea has dropped from 130th last year to 162nd.
Solomon Islands is 111th, Vanuatu 98th, and Kiribati 84th, while Samoa ranks at 57th in fighting corruption.
Meanwhile, Australia has dropped two places to 11th in the table which is topped by Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.
Transparency International Australia's executive director, Michael Ahrens, has warned about the overall situation in the Pacific region.
He says there is a need for developed and developing countries to work together to combat corruption and the need to understand the relationship between corruption and economic failure.
