Japan on Friday added one more country to its map of the world, recognizing the tiny Pacific island nation of Niue -- with its sum total of 1,611 inhabitants.

The move makes Niue the 195th country Tokyo has recognized and comes as the world's third largest economy looks to bolster its influence in the South Pacific to counter a Chinese charm offensive in developing nations.

A proposal by Niue Premier Toke Talagi for his small Pacific nation to house asylum-seekers to Australia has been rejected by the Niuean parliament.

About 1,700 asylum-seekers who took people-smuggling boats to Australia are being held in camps on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru under a deal with Canberra.

An exploding meteor was believed to be responsible for a huge bang that reverberated around the Pacific island nation of Niue last week, police said Monday.

Niue police chief Mark Chenery said the loud bang on Wednesday night woke the island's 1,200 residents and he initially thought a boat had exploded in the harbor.

In a once-thriving village on the Pacific island of Niue, homes lie abandoned, their stucco-clad walls mildewed and crumbling as the jungle slowly reclaims them.

"These villages used to be bustling with people -- now you go there in the afternoon and there's no one," says the Niue Tourism Authority chairman Hima Douglas.