SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia and New Zealand are expelling Fiji's top envoys in retaliation for the military regime's move to kick out their senior diplomats, officials said on Wednesday.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Fiji's acting high commissioner Kamlesh Kumar Arya had been ordered to return to Suva within 24 hours.

"This is deeply regrettable and Australia is deeply disappointed at Fiji's conduct in this matter," he said, according to public broadcaster ABC.

"New Zealand's (foreign ministry) met with Fiji's Acting Head of Mission in Wellington, Mr Kuliniasi Seru Savou, and told him he had been declared persona non grata and was instructed to leave New Zealand," Foreign Minister Murray McCully said on Wednesday.

Smith said Australia, which along with New Zealand has led calls for a return to democracy in Fiji, would not impose economic or trade sanctions on the Pacific nation.

But he said Canberra had been forced to take proportionate action against Fiji after the country's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama gave Australia's high commissioner in Fiji, James Batley, 24 hours to leave the country.

Smith rejected Bainimarama's claim that Australian foreign officials had interfered in Fiji's judicial affairs.

"This excuse is neither warranted, reasonable nor justified and regrettably it takes Fiji's relationship with Australia, Fiji's relationship with New Zealand, Fiji's relationship with the Pacific Islands Forum and Fiji's relationship with the international community backwards," he said.

Smith said Australia was "steadfast in our view that Fiji has to return to democracy," adding that Canberra was open to dialogue between the nations.