Australian Foreign Minister Mr Alexander Downer hopes to visit key Pacific nations before the end of the year to shore up support for Australia's decision to send asylum seekers to island neighbours for processing.
Australia's so-called Pacific solution of shipping asylum seekers to cash-strapped neighbours including Papua New Guinea and Nauru has sparked a regional backlash, with Canberra's cash compensation not enough to outweigh local resentment.
"I certainly will be hoping to visit a number of Pacific island countries before the end of the year, not just in the context of this people-trafficking issue but in the broader context of making sure, at least once a year, I really spend quite a bit of time in Pacific Island countries," Mr Downer said.
Vanuatu's Prime Minister, Mr Edward Natapei, has called Australia's Pacific solution a "Big Brother" tactic of bullying smaller island neighbours into taking asylum seekers.
But Mr Downer said Australia had been unfairly criticised for the three-month-old policy that has seen hundreds of illegal immigrants shipped to Papua New Guinea and Nauru to prevent them reaching Australian mainland and claiming refugee status.
"This is a situation where we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't," Mr Downer said.