Wellington - New Zealand business organisations urged their government on Wednesday to negotiate more bilateral and regional free trade pacts following the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Geneva.

Trade Minister Phil Goff said there could now be no agreement to free up global trade until at least the second half of next year, even though the Geneva meeting went closer to finalising a deal than at any time since the Doha Development Round was launched in 2001.

Wellington (dpa) - The second major storm in a week lashed New Zealand's North Island on Wednesday, with torrential rains bringing landslides and flooding that blocked highways while gale force winds toppled trees.

The Northland province was cut off from the rest of the country at one stage, and 250 millimetres of rain was recorded on the Coromandel peninsula.

Police advised motorists in Auckland, New Zealand's most populous region with more than 1 million people, not to travel unless they had to.

Wellington - Another New Zealand finance company announced it was in trouble Tuesday, the 26th victim of the worldwide credit crunch in the last two years.

The New Zealand Guardian Trust Company said it was suspending withdrawals and new investments in its Guardian Mortgage Fund which holds nearly 250 million New Zealand dollars (about 187.50 million US dollars) for 3,700 investors.

"Due to current liquidity difficulties in the market, the fund is currently operating below its target liquidity rate of 5 per cent," the company said.

Wellington - Searchers were looking Sunday for a man feared drowned after taking to the sea in an outrigger canoe as one of the worst storms to hit New Zealand in a decade blasted the North Island.

The 33-year-old man fell from his canoe in 7-metre sea swells as winds gusting to 165 kilometres an hour lashed the island on Saturday, toppling power lines leaving 
60,000 homes without electricity and blocking highways with landslides and floodwaters.

Wellington - About 100 demonstrators staged a noisy protest against United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dubbing her a war criminal, when she held talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in Auckland on Saturday.

Some wore orange boiler suits like those worn by prisoners at the US base Guantanomo Bay in Cuba and carried banners reading "USA a terrorist state" and saying Rice was wanted for war crimes, Radio New Zealand reported.

Wellington - What weather forecasters warned would be "no ordinary storm" hit New Zealand on Saturday, bringing down power lines, toppling trees and ripping roofs from houses as torrential rains flooded the Northland region.

Winds gusting to 165 kilometres an hour were recorded at Cape Brett in the Bay of Islands and officials warned people to leave the centre of Whangarei, the region's biggest city with a population of about 50,000, as floodwaters swollen by high tides threatened.