South Pacific leaders pledge to fight corruption

South Pacific leaders closed their annual summit yesterday by pledging to work together to strengthen governments and fight corruption in a region that has earned a reputation as an arc of instability.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the leaders wanted "to support member nations in having a stable political environment ... where you don't have that, it's very hard to attract aid, let alone trade and investment."

The 16-nation group signed off on a set of principles of good government including pledges to tackle corruption and government inefficiency. Australia and New Zealand have demanded better government in the region as a condition for continuing to send aid.

"The Pacific Forum has made a conscious decision to pursue the future with a democratic mind but with a Pacific heart," Palau President Tommy Remengasau said as the three-day meeting ended.

Struggling and bad political leadership have been blamed for a string of coups and civil conflicts across the Pacific in recent years, sparking fears that failing states could be exploited by terrorists and other international criminals.

But Clark said the election of a retired Australian diplomat as the new secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat heralded a new era for the region.

After tough negotiations over two days, the leaders broke with tradition and took a secret ballot to elect Greg Urwin for a three-year term starting in January. The appointments are usually made by consensus and in the past the post has only been open to candidates from small island states.

Urwin's is expected to help Australia push for more reform in the South Pacific, although he said his role was to serve all Pacific states, not just Australia.

"I'm not an Australian, I'm an international civil servant ... and servant of all the members of the forum," he said.

Urwin, 56, is a former Australian diplomat who has worked all over the South Pacific, is married to a Samoan and currently lives and works in the Fijian capital, Suva.

"The good will that all leaders have expressed toward the new appointee means that everybody says it's a new era," Clark said.

Urwin's and the enhanced cooperation between member nations have made the forum stronger than ever in its 34-year history, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard said.

"This body is seen as having new authority, new clout, new relevance and everybody will go from this meeting feeling they are part of something that will punch even harder and more effectively in the region than before," he said.

In late July, Australia led an intervention force of 2,000 troops and 300 police in the Solomon Islands, aiming to end the widespread lawlessness and corruption that has paralyzed and nearly bankrupted the nation since a coup in 2000.

The Pacific Islands Forum is made up of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.