Pacific leaders tell Fiji 'hold poll or face suspension'

South Pacific leaders warned Fiji's post-coup government it could be suspended from a regional forum if it failed to hold democratic elections in early 2009.

The leaders condemned Fiji's military chief and self-appointed prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, for breaking his commitment to hold elections in March 2009 and for boycotting the annual Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Niue.

The Forum which represents 15 island nations, including Australia and New Zealand, which have place sanctions on Fiji following Bainimarama's bloodless coup in 2006.

The leaders said a Forum ministerial group would visit Fiji by the end of 2008 to inspect election preparations and that regional leaders may hold a special meeting to "consider special measures in relation to Fiji" such as suspension from the group.

The leaders said in a statement that they "reaffirmed the importance of the (Fiji) interim government honouring the undertakings it made to Forum leaders in 2007 to return Fiji to democracy by holding an election by March 2009 and to accept the outcomes of that election".

Bainimarama staged his 2006 coup claiming the elected civilian government had been corrupt and soft on those behind an earlier racially-motivated 2000 coup.

Racially-divided Fiji has been hit by four coups and a military mutiny since 1987. The island chain, with about 900,000 people, is deeply split between ethnic Fijians and Fijians of Indian background, who make up around 40 percent of the population but control large parts of the $3.7 billion economy.

Bainimarama said on Monday that Fiji would decide its own future and not be dictated to by outsiders and that fresh elections would not be held for at least 12 to 15 months.

He said the delay in elections was necessary to ensure that Fiji reformed its race-based electoral system.

The South Pacific leaders acknowledged there were long-term political issues which needed to be addressed in Fiji, but these should not be used to delay elections.

They said a new government should "advance relevant reforms and promote national reconciliation", but warned any political dialogue must be "genuine dialogue, without preconditions, threats, ultimatums or predetermined outcomes".

The Pacific Islands Forum ends on Aug 21. The remote Polynesian nation of Niue, which is hosting the meeting, lies 3,500 km (2,200 miles) east of Australia, on the eastern side of the International Dateline.

- Reuters