The visit to the Cook Islands is keeping the so-called coconut wireless buzzing, in the words of the tourism authority in the capital, Rarotonga. (The Cook Islands are a self-governing parliamentary democracy, although its citizens carry New Zealand passports.)

Already straining to accommodate 500 people from 57 nations, local officials have had to ask residents to donate their four-wheel-drives for Clinton's motorcades, and have requested that she limit the size of a traveling party that usually includes dozens of aides.

Scoop.co, a New Zealand website, promised that Clinton's visit to Rarotonga "will be a much bigger show than when [New Zealand rugby champ] Zac Guildford ran naked from waterfront Trader Jacks."

To further spice up the drama, a Chinese delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai will be present too. Neither the United States nor China belongs to the Pacific Islands Forum, which has 16 formal members.

The South Pacific largely fell off Washington's diplomatic map in the mid-1990s, when the State Department closed its only aid office in the region because of budget cuts. It reopened the office in October in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, despite budget pressures.

China doesn't disclose its foreign aid spending, but analysts believe that it gives or lends the Pacific Island nations several hundred million dollars annually, often for big projects like sports stadiums that the impoverished governments then struggle to maintain.

That has raised hackles in Canberra, the capital of Australia, the biggest donor to the region. Bob Carr, the Australian foreign minister, told the Australian Financial Review this week that he hopes China will shift to projects that provide more benefit to the recipient country, rather than building "a Chinese port linked by a Chinese road to a Chinese mine."

Some regional leaders worry that Beijing may ultimately seek more than economic and diplomatic clout. One diplomat, who asked to remain unidentified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said as China becomes more powerful, "it would be understandable that they would want more of a military profile."

Partly because of such concerns, New Zealand worked especially hard to persuade Clinton to attend the Cook Islands meeting.

Officials say she will announce new aid programs in conjunction with Australia and New Zealand.

And her entourage will include Admiral Cecil Haney, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, to show Washington's military interest. Earlier this month, Adm. Haney and Kurt Campbell, an assistant secretary of State, toured parts of the Pacific and promised to help several island nations build their military capabilities.

In Tonga, in the central Pacific, where the Chinese have financed a major port expansion, the U.S. officials promised to help upgrade the tiny Tongan navy to fight illegal fishing and help patrol its waters.