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Australia plays down pacific union Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6945809%255E421,00.html http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6945809%255E421,00.html Australia plays down Pacific union By staff writers 14aug03 AUSTRALIA played down the chances of Pacific micro states coming together in a united bloc with a united currency, ahead of a summit of 16 Pacific leaders in New Zealand. Prime Minister John Howard will use the Pacific Islands Forum in NZ to push for greater economic cooperation among island states, and to promote his plan for a regional approach to police training. But a Senate inquiry into the Pacific has suggested Pacific nations go a step further and set up a Pacific political and economic community, similar to the structure of the European Community. Mr Howard said the Senate report contained some constructive and sensible suggestions, but warned it was more important for the Forum to consider joint efforts on governance and policing. "Let's crawl before we walk," Mr Howard told Sky TV. "The first thing is to try and get some joint efforts in relation to governance. "I'll be taking a proposal about police training facilities in Suva. Clearly these small countries don't have the capacity to train their own police. Policing is very important. "If we can have a Pacific centre of police training, that will be of enormous benefits." Mr Howard will also push for smaller nations to abandon their national airlines and to come together to set up a bigger regional airline. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer played down the chances of Pacific nations being too interested in the Senate inquiry's proposed political and economic community. He said Pacific nations already worked together on a number of issues, but they jealously guarded their sovereignty. "There is, in their minds, a limit to the degree of integration," Mr Downer told reporters. "They definitely have a sense of national identity and sovereignty." The forum will also discuss developments on the Solomon Islands, where an Australian-led intervention force is working to re-establish law and order and help rebuild the nation's collapsed economy. Leaders will be briefed on the surrender of Guadalcanal warlord Harold Keke, who gave himself up to the intervention forces today. Keke's arrest is a major boost to the efforts to bring law and order back to the Solomons, and should encourage other warlords to hand over weapons in the nation's gun amnesty, which has already attracted more than 1,000 weapons. Meanwhile, Britain's junior Foreign Minister Bill Rammell held talks with Mr Downer on the Solomons today and said he was encouraged by progress since the intervention force went in. He said he would now urge the European Union to free up more than $13 million in Solomon Islands aid, which had been frozen since the 2000 coup in Honiara. "Certainly an area where we and the Australians are at one is wanting the EU to unlock those funds," Mr Rammell told reporters. "That is something I'm taking away from my visit to the Solomons, to seek to persuade my colleagues on."

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