KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has given officials a week to prepare a plan to retaliate against Fiji's decision to expel High Commissioner Michael Green.
But the strength of the reprisals eventually taken may depend on the Fiji Cabinet's response this week to an independent report setting out the feasibility of a general election in Fiji from as early as November next year to March 2009.
"The reaction of the Fiji Government to that this week will start to give us some indication of what kind of mindset pertains in Suva at this time," Helen Clark said.
She said she wanted to stress that the relationship with Fiji was "not business as usual".
"What Fiji has done is a serious and significant act and our response must be serious and significant and we won't be rushed."
Asked if she expected New Zealand's friends to take action as well, Helen Clark said there would be interest among them in the action New Zealand took, "and they will also be watching, as we are, what the Fiji Government's reaction is this week around the commitments it has to make around the election timetable".
Officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade and of Defence, the Immigration Service, the police and NZAid will spend the week mapping out options to step up sanctions against Suva.
Self-appointed Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the country's military commander, has said Mr Green was expelled for interfering in Fiji's domestic politics but has not elaborated other than to say "Michael Green was in our face".
Helen Clark said there was no rhyme or reason for the action.
"We see this act as a lashing out, driven by the commodore personally."
While she did not say the commodore's pique at Mr Green's being made chief guest at a Junior All Blacks rugby game in Fiji was the primary cause for his decision, she believed it may have been "the tipping point".
Helen Clark outlined the sanctions New Zealand put in place in December after the military coup, including a ban on political visits, defence ties and seasonal work visas, and immigration quotas.
She said she would discuss options for further sanctions.
Helen Clark defended her advice to New Zealanders to think twice before visiting Fiji, after Commodore Bainimarama pleaded Fiji's case last week to potential tourists.
"We need to be clear that the New Zealand High Commissioner has been sent packing for no other reason except resentment towards New Zealand," she said.
"You have to be very conscious if you are travelling to Fiji that that resentment can boil over towards ordinary Kiwi citizens.
"That is why we have advised people to exercise caution.
"We have not advised them not to go."
Foreign Minister Winston Peters did not attend yesterday's Cabinet or Cabinet business committee meetings.
Being outside the Cabinet, he rarely attends the meetings and did not make an exception yesterday.
