The chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Dr Feleti Sevele of Tonga, has declined to say who the three candidates are for the Suva-based job of Forum secretary-general.
Next month's Forum summit in Niue is expected to choose a successor to Greg Urwin of Australia when the leaders meet to discuss the Pacific Plan, one plank of which is improving good governance.
Dr Sevele has confirmed to the news agency Pacnews that three people have applied for the position.
Two candidates are known.
They are the Cook Islands foreign minister, Wilkie Rasmussen, and Samoa's Tuiloma Neroni Slade, who is a judge of the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.
The name of the third candidate is not known.
