KEY POINTS:
Samoa will host a brief visit from United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after she leaves Auckland at the end of next week.
Dr Rice is expected to be accompanied to Apia by New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and will meet various Pacific leaders.
It is not clear whether the Fiji military commander and self-appointed Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama will be there but it is thought unlikely.
Dr Rice and Mr Peters will both be attending the Asean Regional Forum in Singapore on July 23 and 24. She will then fly to Perth, the home city of Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, before a well-heralded visit to Auckland on July 26.
Mr Peters and Dr Rice have formed a sound working relationship, particularly over the denuclearisation of North Korea.
Samoa is considered one of the success stories in a regional bedevilled by political instability and poverty. Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi has led the country of 187,000 people for 10 years.
