Marshall Islands President Kessai Note will lobby US officials on the issue of nuclear test compensation during a trip to Washington next week.
Officials in Majuro say that the aim of the President's trip is to give higher visibility to the Marshall Islands request for more compensation and medical care programs.
Nearly four years ago, the Marshall Islands submitted a petition to the U.S. Congress asking it to consider more than $2 billion US dollars in additional compensation for islanders exposed to the tests from 1946 to 1958.
But Marshall Islands officials have expressed increasing concern that the request is languishing in a Washington bureacracy focused on the war on terrorism.
The president will ask Congressional leaders to hold hearings on the nuclear test issue.
