KEY POINTS:
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and transport magnate Owen Glenn appear to have reopened discussions about Mr Glenn's becoming New Zealand's honorary consul general in Monaco, a letter to the minister obtained by the Herald reveals.
The content and timing of the letter suggest that the discussion occurred while
Mr Peters was in Europe in April and May.
It also indicates that Mr Glenn, an expatriate freight magnate, is making undertakings that would help his chances of Mr Peters' approving the appointment.
Mr Glenn, who has several homes around the world, told Mr Peters in the letter he planned to live in Monaco "until further notice".
And he displayed his credentials as a generous benefactor to New Zealand charitable causes by telling Mr Peters he had made a $100,000 donation to the Millennium Institute of Sport and Health on the North Shore.
The institute confirmed the figure last night and said it started talking with Mr Glenn about 18 months ago.
Mr Glenn also told Mr Peters he would "look forward to receiving from you further details on the projects that you brought to my attention".
Mr Glenn's letter is dated May 8, just after Mr Peters arrived home from an extensive visit to Europe.
The letter follows publication in Saturday's Weekend Herald of an email from Mr Glenn on February 21 to his PR agent in New Zealand in which he says he gave a donation to New Zealand First - contrary to Mr Peters' insistence that he had not.
MP Dail Jones has said that New Zealand First received an anonymous donation last December - when he was party president - of "closer to $100,000" than $10,000.
Mr Peters and Mr Glenn first discussed the Monaco job at the Rugby World Cup in Paris last year.
National Party leader John Key says the letter confirms the need for Prime Minister Helen Clark to step in and clarify matters.
"The Prime Minister can't escape from now involving herself in clarifying the position," he said.
"This letter should be available under the Official Information Act and on that basis, the Prime Minister needs to reconcile the versions from Mr Peters and the emails printed by the New Zealand Herald."
Helen Clark said yesterday that the issue of whether Mr Glenn donated to New Zealand First was a matter for that party, not her as Prime Minister.
"One thing I am not responsible for is New Zealand First," she said on Newstalk ZB.
"The buck stops somewhere else on that one."
It was not a matter to do with Mr Peters' portfolio, "and he performs his job there with integrity and further, I am not a private police force".
Meanwhile, Herald editor Tim Murphy has declined Mr Peters' offer to give the paper access to the party's accounts, in a bid to prove it did not receive a donation.
"Here's the deal," Mr Peters said. "The editor of the New Zealand Herald and the Herald journalist Audrey Young can see New Zealand First's accounts and talk to our independent auditors, but when they find nothing I want them to apologise to the public and then resign.
"We have to have some accountability right now. It's a case of put up or shut up."
But Mr Murphy said the paper saw no value in taking up the offer.
"The issue here is simple," he said. "Owen Glenn says he donated to New Zealand First.
"Winston Peters has said and continues to say that Glenn didn't. The story, based on explicit emails, highlights that gap.
"The responses by Mr Peters, while strident, do not explain that gap and continue to leave open to interpretation all kinds of possibilities for funding assistance for his party and its interests.
"In the circumstances, we see no value in the offer of examining New Zealand First's 'annual accounts'."
