With the Solomon Islands claiming Australia is a meddling regional bully, defence ties with Fiji cut following the fourth military coup in 19 years and the state of emergency poised to be extended in Tonga, John Howard has his hands full in the Pacific, The Age reports.

"The region in which we live belies its name it's anything but Pacific at the present time," Mr Howard said in Wellington last night, February 15 on the eve of trans-Tasman talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The talks are expected to focus on the troubled region. "We will naturally talk a lot about the Pacific," Mr Howard said.

"We have a big and joint responsibility, we have some problem areas, the Solomon Islands and Fiji in particular. We have similar views in relation to the problems of those two countries."

He said Australia and New Zealand remained quite concerned about Fiji and would compare notes today.

"We believe one of the big contributions we can make to the region is in relation to investing in technical education and trade schools," he said.