KEY POINTS:
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will hold talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters when she visits Auckland next week.
National Party leader John Key has also indicated he expects to meet Dr Rice, whose visit will be the first by a US Secretary of State since Madeleine Albright in 1998.
The US State Department yesterday confirmed Dr Rice would attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional forum in Singapore on July 23 and July 24 before travelling on to Perth and then Auckland.
Mr Peters today said Dr Rice would arrive in Auckland on July 25 and depart two days later to meet Pacific Island leaders during a brief visit to Apia, Samoa.
Mr Peters would accompany her to Samoa.
She would hold talks with Mr Peters and Helen Clark in Auckland on July 26.
Mr Peters said the visit showed the relationship with the US was strong.
"Secretary Rice's visit marks and reinforces the excellent state of relations between New Zealand and the United States," Mr Peters said.
"New Zealand and the US work closely together on a range of regional and global issues, including Afghanistan, and the denuclearisation of North Korea.
"We also hold similar views on issues relating to good governance and human rights, as demonstrated by our concern over recent developments in Fiji, Zimbabwe and Myanmar."
Mr Peters said he was delighted Dr Rice had taken up his suggestion of a trip to Pacific to talk to island leaders.
Mr Key today said he too expected to talk to Dr Rice while she was in New Zealand.
New Zealand's desire for a free trade agreement with the US and security issues in the Pacific would be at the top of his agenda for discussion, he said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme today.
- NZPA
