The 39th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Summit officially opened in Alofi, Niue, Tuesday, as the chairmanship was handed over from Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele to his Niuean counterpart Toke Talagi at a ceremony.

The opening ceremony, featuring tropical beauty, island attire and traditional dancing, was held in the open-air Alofi Green and open to all public.

On arrival at the VIP Dias, leaders for the summit were presented with a Kahoa hihi, traditional shell necklace.

At the following opening speech, Talagi extended welcome to all the guests in the small coral island more than 2,400 km north-east of New Zealand. "Niue has once again demonstrated that despite our own constraints and limitations, we can do this (host the summit) well," Talagi said.

Heads of government from 15 of the 16-member PIF are expected to discuss at their three-day summit issues about climate change, economic growth and Fiji situation. They are currently holding main plenary, which will be followed by a whole day of retreat on Wednesday.

Talagi called for more efforts to deal with climate change, which has threatened the safety of some small low-lying island nations which are subject to rising sea level.

"The challenge (climate change) for the region is no longer a matter for research or scientific theory and modeling. The evidence is quite clear that climate change is already wreaking havoc here," he said.

"I think we shouldn't wait until a worse human catastrophe occurs before acting and the international attention now focused on climate change presents an opportunity for the region to negotiate and secure tangible assistance for people already affected by climate change."

Sevele, whose country hosted last PIF summit, echoed Talagi for thanking his government for choosing climate change as the theme for this year's forum meeting.

"We have been talking about these for the past few years; Tuvalu has been crying out about the dire effect of climate change and rising sea-levels, but nothing concrete has been done to mitigate the problems they encounter as a result," he said.

Sevele also suggested the forum leaders to direct the incoming Secretary General to sort out the issue of bulk purchasing of petroleum, a move to lower the rising fuel prices for small island nations, within six months of his assuming office.

Secretary General of the PIF Secretariat, Greg Urwin, died of illness on August 9, 2008, and the new secretary general will be elected at the current forum leaders summit. The leaders and the mass observed one minute of silence in respect of the contribution to PIF by late Mr. Urwin.

Talagi also noted the prominence of the four pillars of the Pacific plan, which recognize the importance of economic growth, security, sustainable development and good governance. The Forum leaders adopted the Pacific Plan in Oct. 2005 for strengthening regional cooperation and integration.

The PIF, founded in 1971, is a key political and economic policy organization in the Pacific. Forum leaders meet annually to develop collective responses to regional issues.

Its membership has increased from the original seven founding members (Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa) to also include Micronesia, Kiribati, Niue, Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Just two days ago, Fiji interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama announced he would not attend this year's summit as he has "local political issues to focus on".

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)