Talks to avert a coup in Fiji were deemed "a failure" on Thursday by the country's military commander, who issued a fresh threat that he will quickly move to replace the government if it doesn't meet his demands.

The government said that it was making concessions to Commodore Frank Bainimarama after crisis talks in New Zealand on Wednesday. But the military leader said that the government had not gone far enough and he set a Friday deadline for its capitulation.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama said that if the government doesn't 'participate in this cleanup campaign immediately — immediately — the military will do it for them.'
(Rick Rycroft/Associated Press)

Bainimarama wants the government to kill legislation that would grant pardons to conspirators in a 2000 coup in the South Pacific island nation, and quash two other bills that he says unfairly favour majority indigenous Fijians over the ethnic Indian minority.

He also is demanding the removal of Fiji's police chief, who has threatened to charge Bainimarama with sedition.

Friday deadline

 "We have given the government until tomorrow afternoon to answer to our demands," said Bainimarama, an indigenous Fijian.

"If by tomorrow afternoon they have not answered to our demands,
then we will take it for granted that we have been endorsed to do the cleaning up campaign in Fiji."

Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, in a statement broadcast nationally about two hours earlier, said the government would suspend work on the bills to allow an independent review to assess whether they are constitutional.

Qarase also said the contract of the police chief, Andrew Hughes, an Australian, was due to end soon, and that his appointment would be reviewed. In the meantime, Hughes was on leave, he said.

Bainimarama and Qarase have been in an often bitter dispute for almost two years, and the commander has repeatedly threatened to force the government out.

"If they don't participate in this cleanup campaign immediately — immediately — the military will do it for them," Bainimarama said.

Hours after the talks ended in New Zealand, soldiers fired flares and set up checkpoints in a late-night show of force in Fiji's capital, Suva.

The military said the action was a training exercise to ready troops against any possible intervention by foreign forces.

Maj. Neumi Leweni, a military spokesman, said about 500 soldiers were involved. Some 3,000 reservists have been called to barracks in recent days as the coup tensions escalated.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer urged Bainimarama to back down from his latest threat.

"Fiji risks international isolation if the military proceeds down this dangerous path," he said.

Australia has stationed three ships off Fiji's coast to evacuate Australian citizens in the event of a coup.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged the feuding parties to resolve their differences peacefully.

Council members called on the Fijian military to "exercise restraint and avoid taking any action which would undermine the rule of law and run counter to the best interests of the people of Fiji."

Fiji, a South Pacific nation of about 900,000 people about 2,900 kilometres northeast of Sydney, Australia, has had three coups since 1987.