KEY POINTS:
The Government will formally support Australia's bid to host the world's largest radio telescope, opening up opportunities beyond New Zealand's imagination, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.
Helen Clark made the announcement after bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Government House in Auckland this morning.
At the joint press conference after the meeting both leaders also repeated concerns over Fiji interim prime minister Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama's decision not to attend the Pacific Island Forum in Niue this week.
The announcement of the telescope was at the top of the leaders' agenda when they fronted to the media, with both saying it was a massive project of global significance, benefiting both countries.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a "next generation" radio telescope which would be more than 50 times more sensitive than any radio telescope which exists.
If Australasia wins the global bid to host the SKA, its centre would be in Western Australia.
Observatory sites thousands of kilometres from the centre, including potentially New Zealand, would be linked by high speed data connectivity.
Construction would begin in stages from 2012.
Helen Clark said SKA would give both countries possibilities and potential "almost beyond our imagination".
A joint officials group will be established to look at how New Zealand would help Australia's bid, she said.
The leaders, who met at a joint climate change conference earlier this morning, continued their discussions at the bilateral talks about the environment and the emissions trading scheme.
When Helen Clark was asked if she had been able to assure Mr Rudd she had the required numbers in Parliament to pass the emission trading scheme legislation, she replied she continued to hold discussions with other political parties.
The leaders also discussed Fiji's decision not to attend the Pacific Islands Forum in Niue, with Miss Clark repeating there was no reasonable excuse for it.
Helen Clark said she expected a strong message to be sent from the forum over the decision .
"Pacific leaders will be concerned about the no-show."
The issue for the forum would be whether the leaders wanted to take the matter further than the ministerial contact group had already signalled, she said.
Mr Rudd said the decision not to attend the forum was a signal of the continuous threat to democracy in Fiji.
"We in the South Pacific take democracy seriously which is why we believe we can't sit idly by while our principles of democracy are shredded."
It was regrettable Fiji would not be represented at the forum, given it and democracy would be at the centre of the forum's discussions, he said.
- NZPA
