Wellington  - New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was attacked Thursday by two men as he arrived at a Maori meeting house for a ceremonial greeting on the eve of the country's national day celebrations.

One man grabbed the prime minister around the chest and neck and another shouted "Don't believe you are coming on here, mate," as he got out of his car at the Te Tii Marae meeting house grounds in Waitangi, the Bay of Islands, news reports said.

Key's police bodyguards arrested the men, one carrying a Maori flag, who said the prime minister was not doing enough for indigenous people. Key was reported to be shaken but unhurt.

The Te Tii Marae has long been a hotbed of Maori protest. Key's predecessor, Helen Clark, refused to go there for the annual celebrations after being jostled and abused by demonstrators in 2004.

Key said earlier that he would go to the marae because he wanted to see Waitangi Day on Friday as a day of unity and celebration.

A public holiday, Waitangi Day commemorates the signing of a treaty between Maori chiefs and representatives of Britain's Queen Victoria at Waitangi on February 6,
1840.

Maori militants have long complained that successive governments of the former British colony have failed to honour the treaty's commitments to preserve the rights and welfare of the nearly 600,000 indigenous people, who comprise about 15 per cent of New Zealand's population.

Formal ceremonies will be held on Friday at Waitangi. (dpa)