Afghanistan tops Key's agenda for Clinton visit

John Key is keen to hear United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's views on what progress has been made towards getting a corruption-free Government established in Afghanistan.

But the Prime Minister says Friday's formal talks will also cover issues such as the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) and the Pacific Islands. He also wants to discuss matters such as China's role in the region, the future direction of Apec, and the evolvement of the East Asia Summit. "I'm also keen to push Doha [world trade negotiations] along."

Mrs Clinton is expected to raise concerns that a New Zealand company has allegedly been involved in selling North Korean arms to Iran. Reports suggest the US Department of Justice is poised to indict the company under the US International Emergency Powers Act.

Mr Key says the Government takes the issue "very seriously".

"It is important to New Zealand's international reputation that companies that are registered here are bona fide and not used for fraudulent activities."

But he noted that the "ease of doing business" was a major selling point for New Zealand. The Government would not want to increase bureaucracy unnecessarily.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has presented a second slate of Cabinet candidates after parliamentarians rejected 17 of his 24 appointments.

"We've got no intention of cutting and running from Afghanistan," the Prime Minister said from his holiday home in Hawaii. "But we do want to see a transference to an honest Government and we do want to see that is put in place."

The Key Government sent 71 SAS troops back to Afghanistan in September - the first deployment since 2006. Since then President Barack Obama has pledged a further 30,000 extra US troops.

The Prime Minister described as "tragic" the al Qaeda-inspired suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan, and indicated that the foiled attack on an airliner over Detroit showed the terrorist group was ever present.

"We need to suppress their desires to increase global terrorism."

The Government declared its formal position on the Karzai Government at a meeting of the UN Security Council chaired by President Obama in New York last week.

Permanent UN representative Jim McLay told the council New Zealand supported Mr Obama's sense of urgency about transferring the security focus to local forces.

But Mr McLay stressed that those who put their military in harm's way in the interests of Afghanistan and its people "were entitled to see better progress on corruption and governance".

The move followed a briefing Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully gave to the inaugural foreign ministers' meeting of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) last month where he outlined the Government's intention to step up capacity building in Afghanistan.

A New Zealand Embassy will soon be established in Kabul.

Yesterday Mr McCully confirmed a "shortlist of two" for the ambassador's job. There are two other positions open - a leader for New Zealand's provincial reconstruction effort will be appointed and a "development person" to run the aid programme.

Mr Key said the fact that Mrs Clinton was "coming for a decent period of time" so early in President Obama's Administration was a "sign that the relationship is dramatically improving".

And he expects the conversations to carry on, assuming he visits the White House this year.

In Washington three months ago, Mrs Clinton said the United States considered New Zealand "a full partner at the table" in Afghanistan. Joint military exercises between New Zealand and the US are poised to resume after a 25-year hiatus, and intelligence sharing has also been stepped up.