Visiting American admiral deftly navigates NZ's nuclear shoals

Prime Minister Helen Clark discussed a number of regional issues with the United States' top Pacific military man yesterday and "touched on" the nuclear issue that has prevented US warships visiting New Zealand.

Admiral William Fallon, the Hawaii-based head of US Pacific Command, met Helen Clark at Auckland's Hilton Hotel on his way home from visiting Antarctica.

She would not elaborate on the contents of the getting-to-know-you meeting - Admiral Fallon has been in the job 11 months - but said "of course" the nuclear issue was "touched on".

"It's an area where we haven't seen eye-to-eye, but we are in the Proliferation Security Initiative with the US and many other Western countries.

"I think the relationship is fundamentally a good one and especially since September 11, we've found many ways of engaging with the US and its defence establishment, which I think has been positive."

However, US warships would not ply New Zealand waters "any time soon," she said.

Asked whether his presence was a sign of a softening of the US attitude to NZ's nuclear-free policy, Admiral Fallon, who reports to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said he was "not in the policy-making business, I'm a military officer".

But he did say that New Zealand and the US were aligned on many more things than the areas in which they held different opinions.

"The principle that I would choose to highlight is one of mutual trust," he said.

"It is about the willingness to be open to discussion ... it's about getting to know the leadership of this country."

He said there should be a willingness to discuss and challenge assumptions taken as bedrock.

A spokesman for Phil Goff said there was substantial discussion on the issue of Fiji and the minister and the admiral had been of the same mind, agreeing that it was vitally important that Fiji avoided the destabilising effect of a coup, or even talk of it.

- additional reporting by NZPA