Members of the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum will travel to Fiji to see for themselves whether or not the situation has improved in Fiji.

The Ministerial Contact Group   a subsection of the Forum met in Auckland yesterday and the group was addressed by Fiji Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully has told the NZ Herald that the situation in Fiji has worsened.

McCully said there were short comings in the report which are not new ones.

Asked if travelling to Fiji would achieve anything, McCully said it was the Group's job to monitor Fiji.

The group's chair, Tonga Prime Minister Doctor Feleti Sevele, said the group had a "frank and fruitful" conversation about where they would like to see Fiji going in the future.

He said the group was invited by Kubuabola and hoped to meet with political leaders outside of the Fiji Government to get different points of view.

Dr Sevele said the group would get information through talking to people on the ground and journalists.

Asked if the environment on the ground made it possible for journalists to do their job, Dr Sevele said he is sure they are getting information to people one way or the other.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the group had to travel to Fiji.
 
Smith said in their view, it is the most effective way of getting a judgment about what is happening on the ground.

The Australian Foreign Minister hopes the group would have an influence on when elections will be held. Smith said and I quote AIf we don't engage, there is no way of influencing things in the future," end quote.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Abal said dialogue with Fiji has to continue.

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele previosuly told Radio New Zealand International that an agency committed to democracy should not remain in Fiji, and he said the Forum should leave Fiji.

However, Dr Sevele said yesterday the group has looked into shifting its base and it had proved too costly.

Fiji's Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has just spoken to Fijivillage News and he told us that Ratu Inoke Kubuabola went with good intentions to brief the Forum Group after an invitation from Doctor Feleti Sevele.

Commodore Bainimarama said following the meeting, the comments being made by the Australian and NZ Ministers shows that there was no good intention on their part. He said it is totally misleading to say that things have worsened in Fiji.