Trade negotiations between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Pacific leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns this week must not plunge Pacific people already hit by the economic crisis, food crisis and climate change further into poverty, says leading international aid agency Oxfam.

With overall growth in the Pacific expected to slow, and falls in tourism, remittances and exports resulting from the global financial crisis likely to hit hard, any new trade arrangements

In brief

Programme summary:

The Pacific regional office works with and supports a total of 12 national societies and two in formation in the region, including Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati Islands, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

In this reporting period, the regional office continues to engage with national societies in the region on disaster

In brief

Summary:

The International Federation's Pacific regional office continues to provide essential support to the region in disaster management, health and care and organizational development. A regional partnership meeting was held in Vanuatu in April 2008 with all operating and partner national societies to determine regional directions and identify priority support areas from the national society perspective.

Key achievements in disaster management

The landslide, in PNG's Enga province, has forced a river to change its course and destroyed an entire village.

It has also cut off access to the Porgera gold mine in the province.

Disaster officials are assessing the damage.

Last week, a similar landslip in the eastern highlands killed seven people.

Authorities are warning heavy rains will continue that could cause more landslips and flooding.

A major landslip in the Papua New Guinea highlands has killed seven people, and officials say more could be buried under the debris.

Official estimates of the death toll had been revised down from an earlier figure of 14 dead.

The landslide has cut-off the Highlands Highway, which links the region with the coastal ports of the country.

The landslip in the Eastern Highlands province cut off the highlands highway on Monday this week.

A second one in the same area in the early hours of Tuesday morning killed seven people and injured seven others.

The toll was expected to rise as more people were believed to be trapped under the debris, which engulfed two buses and three houses near Watabung on the Okuk Highway on Tuesday, the National newspaper said.

Four primary schoolgirls on their way to school on one of the buses were reported to be among the seven dead, with a number of other passengers unaccounted for as search and rescue

An estimated 25 hectares (62 acres) of land was inundated when the Waghi River flooded early Tuesday morning (local time), swamping vegetable gardens, cash crops and livestock, the National newspaper said.

The country's National Disaster Centre committed $58,000 to the Western Highlands provincial government to help more than 700 displaced villagers in the Dei region, it said.

All the local people affected by the landslide in Eastern Highlands province in the vicinity of a gold mine had been accounted for, the official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.

Dozens of people were earlier feared to have been trapped after the landslide struck on Thursday.

The Australia Broadcasting Corporation

Nine people have so far been found dead in the landslip that happened on Thursday at the Barrick Gold mine site.

Gary Littlewood from Queensland Fire and Rescue says the PNG government has requested Australia's help.

"The landslip is at a mine - there's a village attached to the mine and it's about 650 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby, it's up in the highlands," he said.

"A liaison officer from...Emergency