Commonwealth envoy barred from Fiji opposition meet

Fiji's military government has blocked a Commonwealth envoy from meeting opposition politicians as he winds up two days of talks on Thursday.

Special representative Paul Reeves was dispatched to the capital Suva as part of efforts from the international grouping to secure an early restoration of democracy in the Pacific island nation.

Fiji leader Voreqe Bainimarama had warned Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma that Reeves would not be allowed to meet politicians opposed to the regime, Fiji's Defence Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau told Radio New Zealand International Thursday.

Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth this month after rebuffing demands for elections to be scheduled by October next year and on Tuesday Bainimarama reiterated his refusal to bring forward polls from 2014 following talks with Reeves.

Reeves, the former governor-general of New Zealand, said the Commonwealth had to accept what the regime had scheduled for him.

"Well, we are very much dependent upon what is arranged for us by the government of the day and they have not included all the political parties," he said.

"Whatever be our feelings about that, that is the position we accept."

Bainimarama, who overthrew the elected government in a December 2006 coup, on Monday told Reeves he was committed to plans to introduce a new constitution and voting system before elections by September 2014.

"We informed Sir Paul and his team about the July 1 roadmap and we've told them that we needed the time to carry out reforms before we have an election and that's where it stays," Bainimarama told Fiji commercial radio.

The military ruler says the present voting system, under which members of the majority indigenous population and minority ethnic Indian population vote for representatives of their own race, has aggravated ethnic divisions.

Bainimarama also says his reforms will end Fiji's "coup culture," which has seen four governments removed at the point of a gun since 1987.

Reeves was due to meet Fiji business and academic leaders Thursday.