Fiji's self-appointed leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama will be encouraged to move the South Pacific nation back towards democracy during talks at this week's Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said today in Tonga where the forum begins on Tuesday, he would be speaking to the Fijian military leader in the next few days.
The forum is meeting of 16 Pacific Island states, and includes Australia and New Zealand.
Bainimarama seized power in a coup last December, ousting the democratically elected government.
"When the commonwealth suspends a member country, as was done with Fiji, the secretary-general - me - has a responsibility to get into dialogue with the leader of that whatever and encourage them to come back ... onto the democratic train and back into a full democracy. So it is my job to get into dialogue with the commodore," McKinnon said.
He said Bainimarama would be at a dinner on Monday night to be attended by many forum delegates, including New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who has been a staunch critic of Fiji's leader.
"All of us, no matter who we are or what we are, want to see a return to democracy in Fiji, and do want to see a definitive timeline to get back to democracy,".
McKinnon also was critical of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare who has boycotted this year's forum amid concerns about the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
"I am sorry that Prime Minister Sogavare is not here because these Pacific leaders do have a great ability in sitting together in a retreat situation - no-one else there ... to resolve these issues. And they may not resolve these issues but they point a way forward to some kind of a resolution, so I guess him not being here leaves a bit of a gap because it doesn't enable that dialogue to take place," McKinnon said.