WELLINGTON: Australian possums, long considered a pest in New Zealand, now face eradication in the country by 2050, along with with other foreign predators such as rats and stoats.

Prime Minister John Key unveiled the ambitious new goal to make NZ predator free to protect native fauna.

An Australian brush-tailed possum. New Zealanders consider them to be vermin. Credit:Gary Unwin

"While once the greatest threat to our native wildlife was poaching and deforestation, it is now introduced predators," Mr Key said.

Rats, possums and stoats, which kill 25 million of New Zealand's native birds every year and prey on other native species like lizards, will be the main targets.