Fiji military plans civilian government

The military government has promised a return to democracy

The head of the military government in Fiji says he expects to appoint a civilian administration within a few days.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama said there will be no place in the new government for the leader of the coup, George Speight.

Rebel leader George Speight is demanding a role in the new government

Mr Speight is continuing to hold the elected prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, and his ministers hostage almost four weeks after the crisis began.

Commodore Bainimarama said the new administration will be an interim one to help restore stability and democracy to the South Pacific nation.

Speaking in the capital, Suva, he said the administration will help draw up a new constitution, something he described as a difficult task that would not please the international community.

Correspondents say this is a hint that the country will move away from a multi-racial constitution, a key demand of the hostage-takers who seized parliament last month with the aim of giving the country's indigenous community a monopoly of political power.

Mr Speight has said he will continue to hold the hostages until the military agrees to a plan that includes him as a candidate to lead the new government.

Assassination 'plot'

Earlier Mr Speight accused the military of being behind what he describes as a sinister plot to assassinate him.

If anything happens to myself or my group, something will happen to the hostages... Obviously, their lives are in danger

George Speight

He was speaking a day after government soldiers opened fire on a car he was travelling in.

Military officials say Mr Speight was not targeted deliberately.

The coup leader accused government forces of acting like terrorists and said he heard troops shouting in Fijian: "It's him, it's George, let's get him."

Mr Speight's car bears the marks of Monday's shooting

Mr Speight said that his supporters would have harmed the hostages if he had been wounded.

In a thinly veiled threat to the military regime, he said that had he been killed, the country would have witnessed social and civil unrest on a scale never seen before.

The army has called the incident a terrible mistake and says disciplinary action could well follow an investigation into the shooting.