Sixteen Pacific nations, among the smallest and poorest in the world, ended an annual summit here Saturday after endorsing a plan to fight HIV/AIDS and agreeing to find a way to help bankrupt Nauru.
The Pacific Forum, which includes Australia and New Zealand, also heard emotional appeals from a French Pacific territory and one belonging to New Zealand for support for more self-rule.
The leaders, meeting in Samoa, agreed they needed to vigorously address the HIV/AIDS issue, a growing problem in the region, by promoting public discussion and prevention programmes.
They also pledged to send a senior official to its troubled member nation Nauru, once the world's richest country per capita but now in financial ruin, to assess how best they could help it out of its crisis.
In a departure from normal procedure, the forum held an open session to hear cases for more self-rule from the leaders of French Polynesia and Tokelau.
Oscar Temaru, the new president of French Polynesia, a scattered archipelago with a population of 270,000, said his people had the right to full sovereignty.
The pro-independence Temaru was elected president in June, ousting the pro-French Gaston Flosse.
"I remain convinced that the Maohi (French Polynesian) people have the inviolable right to self-determination, to recover its full sovereignty, having at the same time the duty to guarantee sustainable development," Temaru said.
In March, Paris granted French Polynesia more self-governing powers as an overseas country within the French Republic.
Temaru also called for the creation of a "Pacific People's Passport" allowing all Pacific Islanders to travel, live and trade freely within the region.
Tokelau leader Pio Tuia told the summit his tiny territory, a colony of New Zealand, wanted to be self-reliant despite some resistance.
New Zealand is pushing for Tokelau, home to 1,500 people, to hold a referendum next year ahead of self-government in 2006. But there has been some resistance, including from Tokelauans - 5,000 of whom live in New Zealand - and Australia, which says the region's smallest nations are unviable and should be consolidated in some form of political union.
The Pacific Forum meeting also settled a brewing dispute over who should next head the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of developing nations, backing a candidate from Papua New Guinea over one from Samoa.
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