Fiji's interim Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ratu Isoa Gavidi, are to attend next Tuesday's special Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Papua New Guinea instead of Fiji's interim Prime Minister.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama has confirmed this in a statement, following his withdrawal from attending the Port Moresby meeting to focus on the post-flood recovery.
Earlier this week, he wrote to the Forum chair, Niue's premier Toke Talagi, asking that the leaders' meeting be deferred.
The Commodore says he received an initial reply from Mr Talagi, who wrote that the request for deferral has been circulated to the leaders.
The interim Prime Minister says that it's only through the media that he has now heard that the meeting is going ahead, in which case, he has arranged for alternative attendance on Fiji's behalf.
The meeting, which was called following Fiji's boycott of last August's summit in Niue, is to consider targetted measures in response to Fiji's broken promise to hold elections by March.
Among the options listed in the Forum communique is the unprecedented step to suspend Fiji as a Forum member.
