A Maori powhiri and haka opened the United Nations World Heritage committee meeting in Christchurch yesterday.
The World Heritage Committee of the UN's educational, scientific and cultural organisation is meeting for a week-long special session to consider adding at least another 45 sites to UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Sydney's Opera House, the French wine capital Bordeaux and the South Korean volcanic island of Jeju are among the sites, entered by 39 countries, vying for a position on the list.
The meetings, which run until July 2 are closed to the public. Members will consider sites in danger, site management and protection, and will draw up lists for possible future World Heritage sites.
More than fifty Maori New Zealand tribes greeted senior UN representatives and 600 international delegates in a two-hour ceremony yesterday afternoon.
Tuwharetoa paramount chief Tumu te Heuheu praised the committee's role in protecting both natural and cultural sites.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark and other senior government figures also spoke.
UNESCO's 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage currently protects 830 sites of special natural or cultural importance around the world that have what it describes as "outstanding universal values".
On Friday Conservation Minister Chris Carter announced a tentative list of eight New Zealand sites for world heritage status nomination.
The tentative list was to be submitted to Christchurch meeting.
The sites to be developed, in order of priority, for nomination were:
* Kahurangi National Park, Farewell Spit, Waikoropupu Springs and the Canaan Karst System;
* Waters and Seabed of the Fiords of Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) -- an addition to Te Wahipounamu -- South-West New Zealand World Heritage Area;
* Napier Art Deco Historic Precinct;
* Kerikeri Basin Historic Precinct;
* Waitangi Treaty Grounds Historic Precinct;
* Kermadec Islands and Marine Reserve;
* Auckland Volcanic Field; and
* Whakarua Moutere, or the North-East Islands (including Poor Knights Islands)
Cabinet made the choice after two expert advisory groups considered more than 300 submissions from the public on 28 sites.
