Bush praised Clark for her leadership in the Pacific, and said he understood countries in the region needed assistance from the U.S., New Zealand and Australia.

"Some of the countries there have got difficult issues, and it requires New Zealand's leadership with U.S. help to help solve the problems," Bush told reporters, according to a transcript released by the White House.

December's military coup in Fiji made it the third country in the region to experience political unrest in the past 18 months. New Zealand and Australia sent troops to Tonga in October after eight people were killed in riots in the capital. Both nations have soldiers in the Solomon Islands, after rioters looted parts of the capital Honiara in April.

New Zealand is "appreciative of the fact that the U.S. is focusing on the problems of the South Pacific," Clark said. The U.S. will send a State Department envoy to Tonga to assess the current situation there, she said.

It was Clark's second formal meeting with Bush, and the third time a New Zealand prime minister visited the White House in 24 years, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The U.S. and New Zealand share a mutual desire for the nuclear situations of Iran and North Korea to be solved peacefully, Bush said. Cooperation between the two countries in fostering democracy in Afghanistan is also important, he said.