The New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, is giving an additional 1.7 million US dollars to both Samoa and Fiji to assist the next stage of recovery from Cyclone Evan.
It comes on top of grants already made of 500,000 US dollars to Samoa and 337,000 to Fiji.
Mr McCully says the economic impact of the cyclone damage is going to be substantial and an additional allocation has been made to ensure there are no resource constraints over the coming days.
He says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will distribute the money in consultation with relevant agencies.
Mr McCully also says the Air Force Orion that has been searching for missing people off Samoa for several days moved to Fiji late yesterday to undertake similar work.
