Fiji Army to 'secure' capital city

Fijian military has announced to begin securing strategic parts of Suva as part of an 'exercise' designed to train troops to repel any foreign intervention.

The military has said this is a precautionary measure that will include firing illumination rounds into the sea near the island of Nukulau, Makuluva and the entrance to Suva harbour.

A statement signed by Major Neumi Leweni said the exercise would start at midnight and run until 3am. Troops would secure strategic areas within the greater Suva area.

Troops will be in full battle dress and the military warned that the public should be careful but that there was no cause for alarm.

"The exercise is in anticipation of any foreign intervention and the RFMF is taking all precautionary measures," the statement said.

The move follows talks in Wellington, New Zealand, today between Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Mr. Qarase said after the meeting that the talks made good progress towards resolving Fiji's crisis but were not long enough to reach any conclusions.

"The meeting went quite well," Mr Qarase told Fiji commercial radio. "We made substantial progress on the requests and demands from the military," he said.

The talks, the first face-to-face discussions between the two men in 10 months, were hosted by New Zealand in a bid to avert a threatened military takeover of the Fiji Government.

After arriving at Government House in Wellington about 45 minutes after Mr Qarase, Commodore Bainimarama left about two hours later to catch a flight to Fiji.

"We could have gone on more than two hours but the commander had to catch a plane to Auckland," Mr Qarase said.

"All in all, it was a worthwhile meeting, we had meaningful discussions and we need to progress what we discussed from now on."

However, Mr Qarase said there were no concrete plans for him and Commodore Bainimarama to meet again soon.

"There's flexibility. There could be further meetings, we will consider that as we go along of course."

Mr Qarase said the talks only covered the military's demands and not whether it would withdraw its threat to remove the Government.

Commodore Bainimarama last week promised a "clean-up campaign" against the Government within two weeks if the demands of the military were not met.

The armed forces want three controversial bills dropped, Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes sacked and police investigations into Commodore Bainimarama and other senior military officers halted.

- Guardian