SYDNEY -- Tropical paradise or basket case? The South Pacific has taken a good look at itself and decided it's a bit of both. And the bad bit, everyone agrees, must be cleaned up.

The South Pacific Forum, that loose-knit "talkfest" of developed and developing countries, has agreed to self-regulate a raft of reforms designed to defuse internal strife and external security threats. True, the agreements did sound remarkably like many earlier wish lists. This time, though, the small island-states recognize a cleanup must start now -- before fragile societies start crumbling.

The Nasanini Declaration -- named after a suburb in Suva where the regional heads of government met -- commits the 16 highly diverse member states to strategies that some may find too unpalatable, politically and economically, to implement without huge foreign support.

The Solomon Islands in particular is on notice. Since a coup there two years ago, these islands have been effectively ruled by militia gangs. Looting has destroyed basic education and civic services. Honiara, the capital, appears incapable of restoring order.

Soft loans from Taiwan is one cause of bloody fighting there. With the last $5 million tranche of a Taiwanese loan due to be paid to Honiara, local politicians and their gangs are already battling for the spoils.

Papua New Guinea has just come through a bloody election to find its treasury is close to bankruptcy. Vanuatu's deputy police commissioner has arrested 14 leading officials, including the commissioner and attorney general, for alleged corruption. Nauru is keeping its economy afloat with income earned by incarcerating illegal Middle Eastern refugees.

Even Fiji, where delegates enjoyed three days and nights of traditional South Pacific hospitality, political stability is on knife edge. Bickering after a coup there two years ago, the third in 13 years, has left the Indian population's political party desperately trying to regain government through court action.

Australian critics are divided over how tough Canberra ought to get in persuading the islands to smarten up their domestic affairs. "Australia wants to play on the international stage and punch above its weight," laments Tony Reagan, a researcher at Canberra's School of Pacific and Asian Studies. "The government has lost its focus on where it can do most."

That the more mature forum members, Australia and New Zealand, do not always form a united front at forum meetings was again evident when the Suva delegates called on all nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to reduce world greenhouse gas emissions. Canberra agrees with Washington on standing back from ratification. Greener New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark retorted with typical Clarkian bluntness. She reminded the 16 delegates: "Fifteen nations hold the view that Kyoto should be ratified; one doesn't."

Odd man out once more, Howard refused to join in the chorus of condemnation against shipments of Japanese radioactive nuclear waste through the Pacific. The shipments, he noted, were in accordance with international law. Greenpeace is unimpressed. "Australia, part of the problem" its banners told Suva residents.

Globe-trotting Howard was relieved his neighbors did not embarrass him over Canberra's "Pacific solution." Human rights activists elsewhere are already giving him stick over Australia's handling of illegal immigrants. Howard has persuaded New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Nauru to house hundreds of Middle Eastern boat people who illegally landed in Australia. Nauru President Rene Harris claims Australia's Pacific solution has become the Pacific nightmare. The reluctant recipients of the unfortunates made it clear they won't become a dumping ground again.

Feeding his world-stage ambitions, Howard won the forum's support for an international proposal to eject rogue African nation Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth of Nations. Strongman President Robert Mugabe now face the imminent prospect of being internationally shunned for his grabs of white Zimbabwe farmers' land.

Eleven forum members form one-fifth of Commonwealth membership and their support will help Howard, who chairs a London-based task force to restore democracy in Zimbabwe, get a full vote for expulsion.

Forum chairman Laisenia Qarase noted that Fiji had been in a similar position following threats to its democracy in 1987 and 2000. Fiji suffered Commonwealth sanctions before mending its own fences.

That the forum's 33rd meeting could be so successfully held in the capital, Suva, reaffirmed the value of international forces for good. The Pacific is the better for it.