16 Jan 2006

Fiji top level meeting ends as opposition vows to reveal plot details

2:34 pm on 16 January 2006

Fiji's acting president and commander-in-chief, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, has presided over the first face to face meeting between the prime minister and the military commander to resolve the standoff between the government and the military.

The meeting at Government House in Suva lasted over two hours.

Radio Legend reports that Laisenia Qarase refused to make any immediate comments but Acting President Madraiwiwi is expected to make a statement later today.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, has called a news conference this afternoon at which he says he will reveal all about the allegations made by the party president, Jokapeci Koroi.

Mrs Koroi issued a statement at the weekend in which she claimed that the prime minister, the home affairs minister and the minister's chief executive met with the sacked Land Force Commander, Lt Col Jone Baledrokadroka, to plot Commodore Bainimarama's overthrow.

Mr Qarase has confirmed that the government has lodged a complaint with the police for Mrs Koroi to be investigated for inciting violence and attempting to destabilise the country.

In another development, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and East Timorese foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, says from his long knowledge of Fiji, he is confident the country will come out of the current crisis positively.