The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Mr Bill Skate is under strong pressure from opposition members to stand down over allegations that he is involved in a number of crimes. The allegations follow the release of secretly recorded video tapes which have been shown on national television by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The first tape purportedly shows the Prime Minister authorising bribes of thousands of dollars to journalists and others. It shows him in a room with his Internal Affairs Minister discussing bribery over a suitcase filled with cash in brown envelopes.

The second video tape is more startling. It shows Mr Skate describing his personal involvement in a murder.

"We cut the man to pieces" he says; the Prime Minister also describes himself as the boss of Papua New Guinea's criminals. "If I tell my gang members to kill" he says on the tape, "then they kill. There is no other Godfather, I am the Godfather".

The two tapes were released to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation by a former government adviser Mr Mujo Sefa, who says he made them secretly after falling out with senior members of the government.