WELLINGTON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's minister of foreign affairs Murray McCully is defending the government's decision to expel Fiji's acting High Commissioner to New Zealand, Pacific News Agency reported on Thursday.

    The decision to order Kuliniasi Seru Savou to leave was in retaliation for the expulsion of New Zealand's Todd Cleaver and an Australian senior diplomat from Fiji.

    Problems issuing a visa for a Fiji judge whose child needed medical treatment in New Zealand and Australia's refusal to allow Sri Lankan judges working in Fiji to visit Australia, were cited as examples of this interference.

    It is believed that the interim head of Fiji's government, Commodore Bainimarama, ordered the expulsions after Australia informed Fiji that six Sri Lankan judges would not be allowed to transit through that country after they were appointed.

    Fijian officials have also complained that New Zealand had delayed or blocked Fijian judge Anjala (crct) Wati from getting into New Zealand on a compassionate exemption from the ban to be with her sick child.

    McCully denied this and said the applications had been dealt with quickly and approved.

    McCully said the decision to expel Savou followed diplomatic protocol and the government's action drew attention to the fact Fiji's basis for expelling New Zealand's diplomat was unfounded.

    Cleaver will arrive in Auckland on Thursday evening and be escorted through the airport. He will not be speaking to media until he has met with McCully.

    The situation deepens already soured relations between the nations following Commodore Bainimarama's refusal to hold democratic elections in Fiji.

    Commodore Bainimarama was reappointed as Prime Minister earlier this year, less than two days after a court ruled that the 2006 coup and subsequent government was illegal. He sacked the entire judiciary in April and has been trying to replace it with Sri Lankan judges.

    New Zealand and Australia have called for the elections to be held by next year, but Commodore Bainimarama has ruled this out until 2014.

    In response, Fiji has been suspended from the Pacific Forum and the Commonwealth.

    On Thursday, the New Zealand Labor Party said it supported the decision to expel Savou, Radio New Zealand reported.

    Labor leader Phil Goff said he thinks it was bizarre that three New Zealand diplomats have been expelled from Fiji in such a short period of time.

    Goff said Commodore Bainimarama's behavior was not rational and would ultimately make dialogue between New Zealand and Fiji even more difficult.

    "This is not rational behavior and it's certainly not the way in which we can get back to rebuilding dialogue and finding a way forward whereby Fiji can meet the requirements of re-entry to the Pacific Forum and to the Commonwealth of Nations."

    New Zealand-based Coalition for Democracy in Fiji said the latest row between the countries showed a different diplomatic approach was needed.