Climate change is the overwhelming challenge facing the development of the Pacific's smaller island nations, a summit of regional leaders in New Zealand was told Tuesday.

The experiences of the smaller Pacific states would help shape the position of the Pacific Islands Forum nations as they sought to influence aid negotiations, Forum Secretariat Secretary General Tuiloma Neroni Slade told the 20th Small Island States (SIS) Leaders' Meeting in Auckland.

Slade was laying out "key priority areas" to address long term challenges of the SIS ahead of the main forum, which opens Wednesday.

"Climate change remains the overwhelming challenge in our development pursuits," Slade told SIS leaders.

Since the Copenhagen and Cancun global climate conferences, regional governments have been considering how to better manage the flow and use of the greater available resources.

"This has been complemented by our own efforts to strengthen development coordination through the Forum Compact and by doing so, continue the significant work being undertaken in the SIS, to strengthen national systems and bring clarity to where development resources are most needed and best used," said Slade.

The Forum Compact for Strengthening Development Cooperation was endorsed by Forum Leaders in Cairns, Australia, in 2009.

The Forum Secretariat was committed to ensuring the Forum would redefine the global development cooperation agenda, he said.

The country experiences were important to shaping the Forum's position "as we seek to influence the outcomes and negotiations at the upcoming Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, in November."

Good progress had been made on implementing the Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Integration, endorsed in 2005, which was the "master strategy" for strengthening regional cooperation and integration, he said.

"To complement efforts and to measure the extent of what is being achieved, the Secretariat has proposed development of a performance framework for the Pacific Plan that will essentially draw on the accountabilities and performance targets with the existing regional architecture," said Slade.

The key priority areas required "refocusing and reenergizing of efforts with the mobilization and coordination of limited resources" in order to effectively target responses to the region' s main challenges.

"The devastating impact of non-communicable diseases on lives and livelihoods of all Pacific peoples is a crisis of serious magnitude which needs to be addressed with immediacy by all governments of the region," said Slade.

The other priorities identified by Slade included stronger development coordination; education and health; transport, particularly sub-regional shipping services; trade agreements and labor mobility to enable economic integration; and renewable energy and bulk fuel procurement.