Key: Gillard visit likely to help align economies

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is to visit New Zealand for talks early next year likely to yield progress in aligning the two nations' economies, says Prime Minister John Key.

Yesterday, in their first meeting since Ms Gillard won the Australian general election two months ago, Mr Key said they enjoyed a "very warm and friendly conversation".

"It's going to be good working with her... I think it will be a high quality relationship with her at the helm," he told reporters immediately after the 45 minute meeting held in Hanoi ahead of today's East Asia Summit.

Topics covered included Fiji, climate change policy, Australia's proposed regional processing centre for asylum seekers and economic integration.

However, said Mr Key, there were "no real conclusions drawn on anything".

"It was just an opportunity to express some high level views."

Ms Gillard made it clear wanted to visit New Zealand in late January or early February in the first of what she hoped would be annual meetings.

Mr Key said he had raised a couple of things in particular with Ms Gillard and he wanted her visit next year to result in "one or two deliverables".

He would not give further detail except to say Ms Gillard expressed a very strong willingness to continue with the integration of the two economies and make "real progress"in making sure they were in the strongest possible position to compete in Asia and around the rest of the world.

Ms Gillard's proposal for a regional processing facility for asylum seekers was discussed, but nothing was agreed, "just that we would go away and explore where that was going and what the options were".

Mr Key told Ms Gillard his Government did see it as an issue that New Zealand was not immune from and it was considering its own options.

While Ms Gillard understood that, she was of a view this was "a regional issue that partners need to consider and I think she has a fair point there".

Much of the 90 minute meeting was spent discussing Fiji, "and again we remain absolutely committed together to try to do whatever we can to have democracy restored".

"Fresh ideas" as to how that might be achieved were raised and foreign ministers Murray McCully and Kevin Rudd were to meet in a few weeks time to flesh them out.

On climate change Ms Gillard told Mr Key there was cross party support for establishing some form of carbon pricing.

While Australia hadn't resolved how that would happen there was public appetite for progress.

"And I made it clear to them that I thought that was useful from New Zealand's point of view because obviously our markets are very interconnected and ... it's unhelpful if Australia doesn't have the same pricing mechanism or a pricing mechanism in the long haul."