Goff has spent much of the past week playing political football with two of New Zealand's major trading relationships.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has emphasised NZ's security and development role in the Pacific in a speech to the United Nations.

Prime Minister John Key and his wife, Bronagh, will be spending a weekend with the Queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

The Pacific Islands Forum will be held in Auckland next September in the lead-up to the first game of the World Cup, the Herald understands.

New Zealand will boost the monitoring of Pacific fisheries to help an industry that loses more than $400 million a year because of poor enforcement.

The endorsement of Fiji's military regime by some Pacific countries is unlikely to affect the Pacific Islands Forum's suspension of Fiji, says Murray McCully.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer says heading an inquiry into a fatal Israeli raid on an aid flotilla will probably be the hardest job he has done.

New Zealand is considering imposing further sanctions on Iran as part of an international bid to halt its nuclear programme.

The leak to Australian media of a high-level NZ diplomatic cable has jeopardised future discussions between the two countries, Phil Goff says.

Murray McCully says Afghanistan's Bamiyan Province, where NZ troops have been since 2003, will be ready to stand on its own before Hamid Karzai's 2014 deadline.

The Obama administration wants a review of the decision to release the Libyan convicted in the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

On the way to Washington, British Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants to talk about Afghanistan, Middle East peace prospects and the global economy. Everyone else wants to talk about BP.