The Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai has confirmed that government is nominating the foreign minister, Wilkie Rasmussen, as candidate for the secretary-general's job at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
The Forum summit in Niue next month is expected to confirm a successor to Greg Urwin of Australia who retired this year for health reasons.
The only other candidate so far is a judge of the International Criminal Court, Tuiloma Neroni Slade of Samoa.
Tuiloma was first nominated in 1997 but the Forum leaders' summit in the Cook Islands then chose Noel Levi of Papua New Guinea as secretary-general.
