Threat to kill Fiji hostages

Gunmen allowed journalists through the gates

The leader of Fiji's attempted coup has threatened to start executing hostages unless he is allowed to rule the country, the president has said.

Two gunshots have been heard at the besieged parliament compound, but coup leader George Speight said they had not come from his men.

He also denied threatening to kill the captives, who include Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

Inside parliament

12 hostages

Including: PM, PM's son, president's daughter

Up to 25 armed men

President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara has said he will not give in to Mr Speight's demand for a direct meeting until the hostages are set free.

"I learnt in a roundabout way that if I don't follow what he says, he will start executing them one by one. If I don't allow him to run the country. I said that I will not be able to oblige," the president said in a television address.

But Mr Speight said: "To suggest that we would embark on such an operation as a solution is just irresponsible and crazy."

"I am giving the world my word ... I am guaranteeing their safety," he told reporters at the parliament complex.

He also told a local radio station that the gunfire made him think that "there might be third parties on the perimeter [of the complex] intent on creating situations that may be contrary to our non-confrontational stand".

"My people are very highly trained and qualified in situations of this type," he said.

The president has said members of a special "counter revolutionary warfare unit" are involved in the bid to seize power.

But he said Fiji needed no outside military help to end the uprising.

"We have the personnel to terminate what's happening," he said.

'Ethnic rights'

The hostage crisis began on Friday when gunmen burst into parliament to demand the overthrow of the ethnic Indian-led government.

Nine members of parliament were released on Saturday night after signing an agreement to resign. The prime minister's bodyguard and 20 parliamentary workers were also freed.

Mr Chaudhry is the country's first ethnic Indian PM

One of the released MPs, Associate Minister of Information Lekh Ram Veyeshni, told AFP news agency that Mr Speight had held a "machine gun" to his head and made him sign his resignation.

"If not, pointing the gun at me, he said: 'That's it, I'm going to shoot you'," Mr Veyeshni said.

"'It's a matter of deciding your last minutes... your fate depends on your voluntary acceptance of resignation or you face being killed'."

Mr Speight has said he wants to return the country to the control of indigenous Fijians. Mr Chaudhry is the first ethnic Indian prime minister in Fiji, where some 43% of people are of Indian origin.

'Civil war'

Nationalist opposition groups have come out in support of the gunmen, and have demanded the resignation of the president.

Any intervention by force will lead to all-out civil war

Opposition parties

"Ratu Mara has lost touch with the Fijian people and we call on him to resign with immediate effect," said an opposition statement from a coalition of nationalist opposition parties including the extreme Taukei movement.

"His present and current course of action could lead to civil war," it said.

However the Fiji Trade Union Congress is calling a nationwide strike on Monday in support of Mr Chaudhry.

George Speight wants to return the country to indigenous Fijians

The 57-year-old prime minister is said to be mentally and physically exhausted after being held at gunpoint for three days. At one point he collapsed.

Three local reporters who were allowed inside the parliament complex late on Saturday said he had a bruised right eye after being beaten by his captors.

But a Red Cross official allowed into parliament on Sunday said the prime minister had not shown any signs of being beaten and had spoken to him.

The BBC's Phil Mercer in Suva says there is a chance the crisis may be resolved on Tuesday, when the Great Council of Chiefs will meet to discuss the situation.

The meeting would have to be chaired by former prime minister and chief negotiator in the impasse, Sitiveni Rabuka - who himself led a coup in 1987.