The International Kava Executive Council is calling for the immediate removal of international bans and restrictions on kava.
The Council, which has just ended a conference in Fiji, bases its call on further scientific data which it says confirms that there is no justification for ongoing restrictions on kava and kava products.
The council's Pacific co-chair, Josateki Nawalowalo, says they are calling for the bans to be lifted immediately.
"We are hoping that the matter be addressed as soon as possible, and we are looking at 2005. If anything must happen, it must happen in the first half of 2005."
Josateki Nawalowalo.
