The Vanuatu-based West Papua Unification Committee has postponed this month's planned West Papua conference to early October.
The conference is for West Papuan representative groups, who are mainly pro-independence, to discuss a potential bid to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
The potential bid would be distinct from Indonesia which already has observer status at the MSG.
The committee, comprised of Vanuatu's council of churches, national chiefs body and other repesentatives, had been organising the conference for August 27 - 30.
However the Committee's chairman Pastor Allan Nafuki says they decided to move the conference back to the first week of October.
He says this gives them more time to prepare for the conference and for delegates travelling from Indonesia's remote Papua region to meet visa requirements.
Upwards of a hundred delegates are expected at the conference.
