Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Secretary General Greg Urwin has praised China for providing new funding to support the work of Pacific legislatures.

"The 70,000 US dollars donation by China will support the interim Secretariat of the Forum Presiding Officers Conference (FPOC), which represents the Speakers of Parliament and Congress in the Pacific," Urwin said in a statement reaching here from PIF Secretariat in Suva, Fiji, Monday.

"This will help Pacific legislatures to expand their work in the area of governance, in one of the most important institutions in the region," he said.

The statement said the funding was handed over Monday by China's Ambassador to Fiji Cai Jinbiao. Earlier, China provided 30,000 US dollars to assist a FPOC delegation visit to Nauru in July this year.

Forum Speakers now meet annually to discuss a range of capacity building activities and will hold their fifth meeting next April in Apia, Samoa. The FPOC Secretariat currently has one officer, based at the PIF Secretariat in Suva.

China is a longstanding development partner in the Pacific region and has a growing economic and political presence. It has been a Forum Dialogue Partner since the Dialogues were established in 1989 as the key regional consultation vehicle between the Forum and its key partners.