As if its role in Iraq were not onerous enough, the United Nations is seeking to impose "regime change" on a tiny speck of land in the Pacific Ocean.

The territory of Tokelau lies halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, and consists of three atolls with a total area of seven square miles. Its resident population of 1,500 travel to the outside world by an occasional visiting ship.

Yet it is on the UN's list of the world's 16 remaining colonies, and the UN has sworn to make it independent whether its inhabitants like it or not.

This week the UN launches a week of "Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-governing Territories" in a drive to "liberate" them.

Five are in the Pacific, where last week the UN held a conference to draw attention to their plight, with Tokelau at the top of the agenda.

However, the Tokelauans, a Polynesian people, are reluctant over any change in status which would create the world's ultimate microstate. It has no capital or airport, and more of its population live outside its borders than on its territory, since thousands of Tokelauans live in New Zealand, which controls Tokelau.

Last week, the leader of Tokelau challenged plans by the UN and New Zealand to make the territory hold a referendum on self-determination.

"For Tokelau, the most important thing in the decolonisation process is that the people of Tokelau, the elders, the fishermen, the weavers, the young children, know what it means," Patuki Isa'ako told the meeting in Mandang, Papua New Guinea. "Otherwise, we're just wasting our time.

"Why would we want to declare to the international community we have self-determination? While we may work on intangibles such as pride of the people, pride of being self-determined, we've always asked the question, what's it for? Is it going to feed our mouths? Is it going to feed our children? What good is it for future generations?"

However, the UN is undeterred in its drive to get Tokelau to hold a vote. Describing colonialism as "an anachronism in the 21st century" UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the conference: "Decolonisation is a UN success story but it is a story that is not yet finished. We must see the process through to its end."

Critics claim that New Zealand, which strongly lobbied for French decolonisation in the Pacific, is embarrassed to be on the UN's list of states that administer colonies.

"They want to make Tokelau independent because to some diplomats it is embarrassing to have the UN going there now and again and inspecting the place," said one insider, who did not want to be named.

More than 80 nations formerly under colonial rule have become independent since the UN was formed in 1945.

"The decolonisation efforts of the United Nations derive from the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples," the UN says.

But the problem for UN purists is that most of the colonies are either too small to be viable, or are populated by people who do not want to be independent.

The 16 remaining colonies are mostly in the Caribbean or the Pacific. In addition to Tokelau the UN list includes the US territories of the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa; the British territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Island, St Helena and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the French territory of New Caledonia; and Morocco's Western Sahara.

Most could not function without hefty subsidies from the administering countries.

Three British dependent territories, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and Bermuda are exceptional in that they are economically sound.

The Falkland Islanders have become wealthy through fish, and the Gibraltarians through finance and tourism, while the 65,000-strong population of Bermuda enjoys one of the highest living standards in the world.

Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands have the right to self-determination enshrined in their constitutions. But, unlike the UN, both argue that the right to self-determination should include the right to protection from other nations with claims on the territory.

In two referendums the people of Gibraltar have rejected the transfer of sovereignty to Spain and the sharing of sovereignty between Britain and Spain.

The Falkland Islanders are unanimously opposed to being taken over by Argentina.

In Bermuda there is disagreement among the parties over independence. Earlier this year prime minister Alex Scott backed the UN's call for decolonisation. He said that the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) had long favoured independence "and that position has not changed".

But opposition leader Grant Gibbons said that the UN had no business "telling the people of Bermuda what's good for us. We are a sophisticated and mature people and it's a matter for Bermudians to decide when and how we wish to move to independence".