Australia signs new development deal with Nauru
Updated
Australia has signed a new development aid agreement with Nauru.
Our Pacific correspondent, Campbell Cooney, says the two governments are also looking at working on removing Nauru's reliance on donor nations.
The new agreement will provide Nauru with more than $US27 million in development assistance, until the middle of 2009, which will provide funding for health, education, economic and financial management and policing assistance.
But the two countries have also agreed to begin work on a "Pacific Partnership for Development", which Australia's foreign minister, Stephen Smith, says will help the island nation become economically self sufficient.
Nauru's foreign minister, Dr Keiran Keke, has welcomed the partnership plans.
"I look forward to working together in the coming months to build on our recent experiences," he said.
Currently Nauru is mining and exporting its secondary reserves of Phosphate, but it is not known how long those reserves are expected to last.
