New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on Monday shrugged off support for Fiji's military dictatorship from nine of the 16 nations attending this week's Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland.

Key and his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard have worked hard in recent years to make Fiji a pariah state in the Pacific over the military's refusal in the wake of a 2006 coup to hold democratic elections until 2014.

However, 11 leaders and delegates of Pacific Island countries, including nine from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), backed Fiji's blueprint for democracy at an "Engaging with the Pacific" meeting held in Nadi last week.

Key, whose government is demanding an immediate return to democracy, downplayed the importance of the Nadi statement, saying not all the countries that signed it were represented by their leaders.

The New Zealand prime minister said he did not expect the issue of Fiji, which was suspended from the PIF in 2009, to dominate discussions between regional leaders at this week's forum, which begins on Tuesday.

"I would be absolutely stunned if it changed its position. We don't have any indication they want to do that," he told reporters.

"Our view is that, like New Zealand and Australia, countries in the Pacific believe democracy should be restored in Fiji."

Since taking power, Fiji's military leader Voreque Bainimarama has suspended the constitution, sacked the judiciary, muzzled the media and been accused of human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully urged Pacific nations to "get serious" about the challenges facing impoverished island nations, calling for improved infrastructure, investment opportunities and education.

"We need to get out of 'business-as-usual' mode and get serious about tackling the issues that have attracted a good deal of talk at regional meetings in the past but too little action and follow-through afterwards," he said.

McCully told a pre-summit business function that the Pacific had vast potential in areas such as tourism and fisheries but was hampered by governments that were "too slow, too bureaucratic and too cumbersome".

"Lack of investment in airports, runways, wharves and cruise facilities constrain the transport services that are the arteries for tourism and trade," he said.

"(They) act as a major deterrent to private sector investment in tourism assets."

McCully also said lack of education was hobbling economic growth in the Pacific, pointing out that about 40 percent of children in island nations did not complete primary school.

"Sustainable economic development cannot happen in an environment where basic education is weak," he said.

McCully said there had been plenty of debate and reports about the problems facing the Pacific but this week's summit provided an opportunity for leaders to deliver "concrete, deal-producing outcomes".

"We need a stronger sense of focus," he said.

"While it's easy to render a shopping list of problems that need to be fixed and achieve little, we need to focus on some big, game-changing targets that can deliver a step-change in economic performance for the region."