French Polynesia's president, Oscar Temaru, has deferred his trip to New York by three days and is now due to leave the day after tomorrow.
Mr Temaru had earlier announced he would leave last weekend to lobby the United Nations to re-inscribe French Polynesia on the UN decolonisation list.
Reports from Tahiti say Melanesian countries are set to back his campaign, which is however resisted by the opposition in Tahiti, the French government and among others, New Zealand.
Paris has said French Polynesia already enjoys the biggest measure of autonomy within the French republic and gets two billion US dollars in transfers a year.
