Clinton to visit quake-hit Christchurch

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave politics behind today and travel to Christchurch.

Mrs Clinton arrived in New Zealand early yesterday morning. She spent the day holding meetings with Prime Minister John Key and other senior politicians before having a barbecue at Premier House.

This morning she will lay a wreath at the National War Memorial in the capital before flying to Christchurch.

There she will visit the US Antarctic Programme Centre, hold a public meeting at the town hall and attend an export reception hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs Clinton said she was looking forward to visiting Christchurch were she would focus on New Zealand and the United States' mutual cooperation in Antarctica and on disaster response -- particularly after the recent earthquake in the southern city.

Mr Key said the people of Canterbury and New Zealand appreciated Mrs Clinton's display of solidarity by visiting Christchurch.

Mrs Clinton and Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully signed the Wellington Declaration yesterday.

Areas specifically mentioned in the declaration were annual political military talks, regular ministerial-level meetings, and working together in the Pacific region on energy and natural disaster response projects.

Mrs Clinton said the two countries wanted to work together on the many areas of mutual interest.

"This Wellington Declaration makes it clear that we want to cooperate across the board in every aspect of our civilian efforts and our military as well."

She said the countries had a procedure for handling military cooperation and would look to do more in that area.

It would be up to the respective military how that would work but was likely to include more joint training, officer exchanges and joint exercises.

Mrs Clinton said while this was her first visit to New Zealand she hoped it would not be her last.

"I can't find too many excuses to come too often or I'm afraid Congress might get a little bit suspicious as to why I'm spending more time in New Zealand than in Afghanistan or Iraq," she said.

Mrs Clinton departs Christchurch tomorrow for Australia.