WELLINGTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Vanuatu's Prime Minister Ham Lini said on Friday that he looked forward to working with his new Solomon Islands counterpart Derek Sikua, Radio New Zealand International reported.

    Lini is due to host a Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) summit at the newly built MSG secretariat in Port Vila in February, 2008.

    He indicated the meeting had been postponed in 2007 because the Solomon Islands was preoccupied with its domestic political situation.

    But Lini said now that the Solomon parliament has settled on a change of leadership, he hoped the MSG can get on with its business.

    "Well it is one of our neighbors and us Melanesian countries, we always work together with the Solomons. And we hope that with the new Prime Minister, we will work more co-operatively together, and we don't have any problem with the Solomons," Lini said.

    The Solomon Islands parliament elected Sikua to be the South Pacific nation's new Prime Minister on Thursday, replacing Manasseh Sogavare.

    Sikua is a new comer to the parliament, having served just overa year and half in parliament. He became Minister for Education inthe Sogavare government until he crossed the floor a few weeks ago, which led to the vote that toppled the government last week.