Fiji president reappoints Qarase as caretaker PM

Qarase

SUVA, Fiji (Reuters) -- Fiji's President Ratu Josefi Iloilo said on Friday he was reappointing caretaker Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to head the country's interim government despite nationalist rebel opposition.

The president's office said Qarase, a merchant banker, and his 27 ministers would be sworn in at 11 a.m. (2300 GMT Thursday).

Three nominees chosen by rebel leader George Speight have been dropped from the line-up.

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It otherwise remains largely unchanged from that announced last week when rebels had threatened unrest if the line-up was not changed.

Fiji remained on alert after the military cracked down on nationalist rebels ahead of the appointment of the new government.

Speight's late-night arrest on Wednesday, news that he may face treason charges and a tear-gas raid by the military on his rebel camp near Suva have sparked widespread civil unrest.

More than 300 rebels supporters, including some women and children, were captured in the raid and late on Thursday dispersed to different holding points in the capital.

One man died in the raid, with more than 40 injured.

Fiji has been roiled by turmoil since Speight and his gunmen stormed parliament in May in the name of indigenous rights and held ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry and most of his multi-racial cabinet hostage for 56 days.

The country was reported quiet overnight and Air Fiji said it hoped two New Zealand pilots would be soon released after being kidnapped on Thursday by gunmen and taken to a nearby village.

"We're hoping they will be released this morning," an airline spokesman told Reuters from Savusavu on Fiji's second main island of Vanua Levu, where talks for the pilots' release continued.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said meanwhile that evacuation plans were in place for New Zealanders in Fiji should the situation there deteriorate.

However she told Radio New Zealand there was no immediate need to carry out the plan for the several hundred New Zealanders currently in the country.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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