NZ may find other ways of helping Iraq when troops return, says PM

1.00pm

New Zealand troops helping in the rebuilding of Iraq will come home in September but Prime Minister Helen Clark says New Zealand may then look at further ways of helping the country's return to full sovereignty.

New Zealand has a small team of about 60 army engineers in Iraq repairing buildings and infrastructure, and has given humanitarian aid to Iraq.

After a meeting with Australian opposition leader Mark Latham in Auckland today, Helen Clark said the two Labour leaders discussed Iraq briefly.

Mr Latham and Australian Prime Minister John Howard had been at loggerheads this week over Mr Latham's promise that an Australian Labor Government would bring Australian troops home by Christmas.

Helen Clark said setting a timetable to bring troops home depended on what job they had been sent to Iraq to do.

"In the case of New Zealand, with the commitments we have made to the international effort against terrorism and the reconstruction of Iraq, we have tended to take a tranche of decisions which have a time period on them.

"But we may then come back and do the same thing again at another point when we have force regeneration. That is for example, has been the case with the SAS in Afghanistan," she said.

Mr Latham said the New Zealand decision not to send combat troops to Iraq was in line with the Australian Labour Party policy.

"If Labour had been in government in Australia we wouldn't have had troops in Iraq in the first place."

Helen Clark said she and Mr Latham discussed a range of issues today, including building the relationship between the two countries and a regular exchange of back bench MPs.

She said the relationship between the two countries was of huge importance to New Zealand.

They also spoke of South Pacific issues and Helen Clark said she was impressed with the high level of interest Mr Latham had taken in the South Pacific, Miss Clark said.

Mr Latham said an Australian Labour government would have three priorities for building partnerships with New Zealand, including leadership in the Pacific to deal with Pacific issues before they became critical, the harmonisation of business regulation, and to work together to "kick-start" multi-lateral free trade initiatives, particularly in Asia.

He said if the whole world followed to move towards bi-lateral agreements, it would result in "a spaghetti bowl of bi-lateral trade arrangements that are often conflicting and confusing.

"We are always much better as two nations to put our efforts into multi-lateralism. We have got huge opportunities in Asia and I think together as two Labor governments in the future we can realise that potential in quite significant ways," Mr Latham said.

He said the Australian Labour Party also supported the concept of a single economic market between Australia and New Zealand.

"The concept is good and makes sense for both nations."

He said it was appropriate to consider prudential regulations in the banking sector, competition laws and common accounting standards.

He said he was interested in a second round of reform which would take that further but would not speculate on what a second round might include.

Last month Australian Prime Minister John Howard said after meeting with Helen Clark the two countries were "already a long way down that path" towards developing a single economic market.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Iraq