11 Jul 2005

Pacific leaders meet in Wellington for talks on Pacific Plan

10:33 am on 11 July 2005

Four Pacific leaders meet in Wellington today to assess progress on the draft of the Pacific Plan for integration and co-operation in the region.

They are New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, the Pacific Forum's current chair, Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele, Papua New Guinea's leader Sir Michael Somare, and the President of the Marshall Islands, Kessai Note.

The secretary general of the Forum Greg Urwin says they will be updating the leaders on issues raised at public consultations on the draft, which has now been up for discussion in all but 2 Forum countries.

He says he is confident that by the time of the Forum summit in October they will have concrete proposals ready to be go.

"We will be saying to leaders - here are some things that can be implemented now, here are some things to we would like you, if you agree, to agree to in principle and to which we will continue to work for them and here are a couple of big further things and we can start moving down the track towards."