KEY POINTS:
Helen Clark welcomed the commitment by Fiji to hold elections by March 2009, but did not resile from her criticism of coup leader Frank Bainimarama attending the Pacific leaders forum.
"There was nothing that he said that one could not have predicted would have been said in any case," Helen Clark said. "But he turned up and that enabled leaders to confront him directly."
Mr Bainimarama gave a firm commitment to the Pacific Islands Forum to not only hold elections by March 2009 under its present constitution but for himself and the Fiji military to accept the result.
That goes further than he has gone before, when his agreement to hold elections by then was "in principle" only.
Sanctions against Fiji by Australia and New Zealand will begin to be lifted as plans for elections unfold.
An established working group of forum officials working on the Fiji situation will work with Fiji on the planning.
Foreign ministers of forum countries will meet in January next year to assess progress.
Mr Bainimarama signed up to the decisions too.
At the conclusion of the summit last night, Helen Clark said the proof of the pudding would be in the eating.
"We still have to keep Fiji's feet to the fire with respect to [seeing] that commitments given are actually implemented."
The details of the agreements on Fiji were announced by Tonga's Prime Minister Feleti Sevele.
Mr Bainimarama made a presentation in the forum in which he singled out Australia and New Zealand for a special plea.
"I offer dialogue and ask them to engage with me and my Government. Let's work together and with each other as partners, as neighbours, as friends to address the challenges faced by my country."
He acknowledged that relations with the Governments of Australia and New Zealand "and in particular with their leaders and foreign ministers have not been the best".
Mr Downer said the seven-point agreement on Fiji showed that the forum was still "highly relevant".
The leaders' retreat and the forum finished last night on the island of Vava'u.
Dr Feleti said it was clear from the leaders' statement that Fiji would be working under its present constitution towards a general election. "Anything beyond that is not acceptable."
Helen Clark said the leaders saw the People's Charter being developed in Fiji as a "political initiative" of the interim Government. "But it shouldn't be distracting from the central purpose of preparing the credible roadmap according to the constitution and laws of Fiji."
Fiji's interim Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, told the Herald that work on the elections was well under way.
Meanwhile, Helen Clark said the forum decided that its ministerial standing committee would go into urgent discussions with the Solomon Islands Government about the Regional Assistance Mission.
