Fiji’s Prime Minister is labelling claims that he criticised John Key during a speech in June as a media beat-up.

Frank Bainimarama is in New Zealand on his first official visit and attended the Fiji Trade and Investment Symposium at Auckland’s Stamford Plaza Hotel this morning.

At a dinner in Suva in June, he lashed out at New Zealand for not understanding what his political party was trying to achieve.

At the banquet, he ignored New Zealand's significant help after Cyclone Winston - instead concentrating on past grievances and refusing to lift bans on New Zealand journalists.

He also said he had not forgotten how New Zealand responded with sanctions to his coup to take power in 2006.

But Bainimarama said today it’s unfortunate that the media interpreted the speech as him giving Key a hard time.

"I think John Key understood that the speech I made was merely outlining our position and that no disrespect was intended," Bainimarama said.

He said the only indignation came from some of the New Zealand media who chose their own interpretation.

Bainimarama also reiterated the lifting of Fiji’s ban on foreign journalists, and invited New Zealand journalists to visit the island nation.

Fairfax reporter Michael Field had been banned from Fiji for nine years and Television New Zealand's Barbara Dreaver for eight years.