Italy`s preparations for their final autumn test match against the Pacific Islands have been hit hard forcing coach Nick Mallett to delay the team`s announcement due to the number of players carrying injuries.

NUKU'ALOFA, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union held high-level political talks for the first time Friday with the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum after signing agreements for aid worth 276 million euros (394 million US dollars) with regional countries.

The EU and the forum, which groups Australia, New Zealand and 14 Pacific Island states, will hold ministerial level talks every three years, starting from 2008.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel said the EU believed it was important to step up its relations with the Pacific.

VAVA'U, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama Wednesday pledged to hold elections in early 2009 as Pacific countries welcomed the move and vowed to continue pressing for progress at a regional summit.

Delegates at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga called in a statement for the military-led regime to produce a credible 'roadmap' to polls after the elected government was toppled in December.

VAVA'U, Tonga, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama promised Pacific leaders Wednesday that he would hold elections in early 2009 and accept the outcome, they said after talks here.

The commitment was welcomed as 'heartening' by other leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, who said they would work to ensure he kept his promise.

Bainimarama, who toppled Fiji's elected government last December, has only previously agreed 'in principle' to elections by the end of March, 2009.

NUKU'ALOFA, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - Leaders from 16 Pacific countries started two days of talks in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa Tuesday with the restoration of democracy in Fiji after last year's coup topping the agenda.

Coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama is attending the Pacific Islands Forum summit, along with one of his staunchest critics, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard stayed home after calling an election for next month, with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer taking his place.

NUKU'ALOFA, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - Differences among Pacific leaders on how to deal with Fiji's military regime after last year's coup emerged at the opening day of a regional summit here Tuesday.

Australia and New Zealand have taken a hard line against military leader Voreqe Bainimarama's regime, introducing sanctions and severing high level bilateral contacts.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark reiterated Tuesday on the opening day of the Pacific Islands Forum that she would not hold a bilateral meeting with Bainimarama, who led the bloodless coup last December.

NUKU'ALOFA, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama downplayed the likelihood of a confrontation with his critics from Australia and New Zealand this week as he arrived here Monday for a regional summit.

The Pacific Islands Forum gathering will be the first time he has faced his foreign detractors since his military takeover last December, but the commodore said he did not expect a diplomatic showdown.

SYDNEY, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard Sunday announced he would not be attending this week's Pacific Islands Forum as the government goes into caretaker mode ahead of an election.

Howard was due to travel to Tonga to attend the two-day regional summit which begins Tuesday.

But, in announcing that Australians will go to the polls on November 24, he said he would be unable to attend the meeting.

'I do not think it's appropriate, now that the election campaign has started, that I go,' he told a press conference.

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Awkward body language can be expected when Fiji's coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama meets Australian Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark at a regional summit here this week.

Australia and New Zealand have halted high level political contacts with Fiji since Bainimarama toppled the elected government of prime minister Laisenia Qarase in a bloodless coup on December 5 last year.

BRUSSELS, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission said Monday, for the first time, that it would be ready to lower the bar in trade talks with the 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific rim countries making up the so-called ACP group.

The Commission's trade directorate chief David O'Sullivan told members of the European Parliament that Brussels would be prepared to reduce its ambitions on services oriented agreements and focus only on a goods deal.