The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission, SOPAC, says that Pacific countries are making solid progress in their bids to extend their maritime boundaries.
A number of Pacific states agreed to join efforts in a bid to secure potential greater ocean wealth that may include gold, silver, oil and gas, after a three-day consultation with SOPAC in Brisbane.
The consultation examined SOPAC's assessments which have identified strong grounds for some countries to extend sovereignty over their continental shelves.
The Manager for SOPAC's Ocean and Islands programme, Mary Power, says PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji , Tonga, Palau, Kiribati and the FSM are making progress towards meeting a UN deadline of May 2009 for the bids.
"This has been quite a significant achievement to get this far with the resources we have. But obviously we have quite a way to go still so we will be relying on our larger development partners to help us with this and especially our neighbours in the Pacific. And especially we need to keep up the momentum given that really we only have two and a half years left and there's quite a significant way to go still."
SOPAC's Ocean and Islands programme manager, Mary Power
