Fiji, climate change top forum agenda THE contentious issue of Fiji will weigh on Pacific leaders' minds again when they sit down for talks on a remote, private island. Australian federal minister Jacinta Collins and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key will sail to Eneko Island with 13 other leaders for the Pacific Islands Forum retreat on Thursday, where they are expected to agree on a series of joint policy positions on issues ranging from Fiji to climate change. Fiji has been suspended from the forum since 2009 three years after Commodore Frank Bainimarama led a military coup to seize control of the government. Its re-entry is conditional on holding free and fair elections, which are finally due next September. Australia's and New Zealand's strict stance on Fiji has softened, with Mr Key saying the Pacific needs to look forward, rather than backwards. Other leaders, including Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, are singing from the same songsheet. He told media PNG has been one of Fiji's biggest supporters, but "waiting one more year to get the elections out of the way won't hurt us." Kiribati's President Anote Tong wants to see leaders acknowledge Fiji's positive developments and potentially welcome it back before next year's forum. We always argue over this at the retreat. You don't hear us argue, but we do. But I'd like to see something move. Climate change is set to be a divisive issue at the retreat because of Australia's and New Zealand's meagre carbon emissions targets. Officials worked into the night on Wednesday to get multilateral agreement on the Majuro Declaration on climate change, along with a strong message to the US over its obligations to assist the Marshall Islands following nuclear testing 60 years ago.