Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the governments of Australia and New Zealand have decided to form a new partnership to work on the challenges of climate change.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has met Mr Rudd and senior members of Federal Cabinet in Canberra today.

Mr Rudd says while the two countries have always worked well together in the past, he hopes the relationship can be strengthed in the future.

"We have an unprecedented opportunity to work closely and seamlessly, globally, in the international negotiations which will now take place between now and the end of the Bali roadmap which concludes at the Copenhagen conference at the end of 2009," he said.