The BBC's Mike Donkin on Millennium Island says extraordinary scenes greeted the new year. The 'torch of peace' was handed to a boy Dancers in swaying grass skirts and head-dress welcomed the millennium with a traditional call for good luck, after chanting farewell to the pain of the past and heralding a new time of unity. Let us put aside all divisions - let us unite in love and peace. As they chanted the dancers swayed to the rhythm of giant box drums, beaten by the elders. All the costumes worn by the dancers were made up of natural materials and their bodies glistened with coconut oil.
Millennium Island is a tiny, normally uninhabited atoll made up of palm beaches and a coral sea.
It took the dancers three weeks to reach the island from the Kiribati capital, Tarawa. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Links to other Asia-Pacific stories are at the foot of the page.