The Fijian rebel leader holding the elected government hostage has said he
is determined to persevere with his coup.
Businessman George Speight has told the BBC that he is willing to die to ensure
what he described as a secure future for indigenous Fijians.
He wants to install a government which is committed to keeping ethnic Indians
out of the country's top jobs.
And he has told the country's military rulers that he will not release the
elected ethnic-Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, and 30 other politicians
until there is agreement on the composition of an interim government
Fiji's military rulers have withdrawn the nomination of an interim prime minister,
Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, following objections from Mr Speight.
Mr Speight's spokesman, Joe Nata, said Ratu Nailatikau lacked commitment to
the cause - a reference to the rebels' demands that ethnic Indians be barred
from top jobs.
He added that there should be a council of advisers without a prime minister.
"A council of advisers does not necessarily need to have a prime minister."
Ratu Nailatikau is the son-in-law of President Ratu Mara - who stepped down
to make way for the military takeover - and the husband of one of the hostages.
He was Fiji's army commander until he was overthrown in an earlier military
coup in 1987 and later became Fiji's high commissioner to the UK.
Concessions Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the leader of the military council,
issued a statement saying the naming of an interim government had been postponed
until the situation had stabilised.
The military council said its main objective was to ensure the release of hostages
from the parliament building and the return of all weapons to the army's headquarters.
Commodore Bainimarama said the army would not use force to free the hostages,
and that negotiations with the rebels would continue on Thursday.
He said earlier that Mr Speight now had the three things he said he wanted before
releasing his hostages: the ousting of the president, an amnesty and the removal
of the 1997 constitution.
However, the BBC correspondent in Fiji says negotiations between the rebels
and the military appear to have stalled over the rebels' demand that everyone
involved in the uprising be granted an amnesty.
Mr Speight, who declared himself prime minister early in the hostage drama,
has so far refused to recognise the authority of Commodore Bainimarama.
He says the military leader remains loyal to President Ratu Mara, who is now
reported to be staying on a boat in Suva harbour for his own safety.
Under threat Rebels have been seen stoning cars and beating ethnic Indian drivers
outside the parliament complex.
Reports say that both the police and army have been reluctant to intervene,
although some people have been arrested.
On Tuesday, the military scrapped the multi-ethnic constitution adopted in
1997, which had allowed Mahendra Chaudhry, the first ethnic Indian prime minister,
to take power.
The 1990 constitution, which has now been revived, reserves specific ministerial
portfolios for ethnic Fijians, among them that of prime minister.
Some 44% of the population in Fiji are ethnic Indians, who first came to the
islands in the 19th century to work in sugar plantations.
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