Key gets to sit with Obama at Apec

Prime Minister John Key has struck it lucky at next week's Apec conference in being one of three leaders who will sit beside American President Barack Obama during a session discussing the priorities of business in the Asia-Pacific region.

The annual economic summit of 21 regional leaders, which is being held in Singapore this year, traditionally divides into small groups for the dialogue with regional business figures under the auspices of the Apec Business Advisory Council, a non-governmental entity.

Next week's meeting has Mr Key, who is attending his second Apec, placed in the same group as President Obama and the President of the Philippines and the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.

The luck of the draw may prove to be some consolation if Mr Key fails to secure a far more highly valued one-on-one bilateral with the American President, in what would have been a sign of ever-strengthening ties between New Zealand and the United States. Such a meeting has been thought unlikely, partly because President Obama's time in Singapore has been truncated by the need to deal with domestic matters in the US.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, who had several encounters with the US President during September's meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, is also expected to have other opportunities to chat informally with his counterpart during the leaders' meeting and retreat.