Pacific calls for climate action

By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Pacific island leaders urged Fiji's military to return to democracy

Climate change, the global economic crisis and democracy in Fiji have dominated talks by leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in Australia.

The region's governments have called for international help to protect vulnerable island states from rising sea levels and warmer temperatures.

Delegates have also demanded that Fiji's military leadership return the country to democracy.

The 16-nation forum was meeting for a two-day summit in Cairns.

Vulnerable nations

The leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region's main political body, have called for decisive action from the international community to reign in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said climate change had become a matter of survival for small nations in the South Pacific.

There are warnings that vulnerable, low-lying settlements could simply be washed away by rising sea levels.

A final communique stressed the need for the region's battered economies to be given more help to ride out the global financial crisis.

The most divisive issue at the summit was the future of democracy in Fiji, which remains suspended from the forum because of a military coup in 2006.

The country's Melanesian allies, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, have failed to get the Fijians reinstated.

Instead, the forum has again called for democracy to be restored as soon as possible in Fiji.

But the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Derek Sikua, said it was important that members of the forum did not isolate Fiji.

"We must continue to engage in genuine, open dialogue with all levels of leadership and society in Fiji, to see a way forward, because only through dialogue can we be in a position to move forward and find a solution for Fiji," he said.

Fiji's military chief, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006. He has promised a return to democratic government but not for another five years.

The Commonwealth has given Fiji until September to call for elections next year, or be suspended from the organisation.