KEY POINTS:
Fiji's Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase refusal to resign comes in the face "huge threats and intimidation" from the military, Prime Minister Helen Clark told Parliament today.
As soldiers raided key installations and surrounded the prime minister's residence in Suva, Helen Clark announced sanctions were being imposed on Fiji.
She said she had been advised that President Ratu Josefa Iloilo had acted outside his constitutional powers and was supporting the removal of a democratically elected prime minister.
"I have spoken to Mr Qarase again within the last hour and a quarter," she said just after 2pm when Parliament met.
"He is showing great courage in the face of huge threats and intimidation by the Fiji military led by Commodore Bainimarama.
"The prime minister has told me again that he has no intention of resigning. He is deeply concerned that the president has acted outside his constitutional powers to support the military."
Military commander Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama was reported to have met President Iloilo this morning and local radio reports said the president had then appealed to Mr Qarase to resign.
Helen Clark condemned the unconstitutional action taken by Commodore Bainimarama and President Iloilo.
"The message of the New Zealand Government to the president and the commodore is very clear," she said.
"They should pull back, even at this late stage, from their unconstitutional actions.
"If they do not, they will cause irreparable damage to the Fiji economy and people."
Helen Clark said that because of the events that had already taken place, the Government was now:
* Imposing travel bans on senior Fiji military officials and their families;
* Discussing with Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon the likelihood that if the coup was not stopped Fiji would be suspended from the Commonwealth;
* Suspending bilateral defence ties with the exception of maritime patrolling, disaster relief, and search and rescue activities.
"A range of further measures are available to the New Zealand Government and will be based on our reactions to coup activity in 2000 and these will be implemented progressively unless the Commodore and the President withdraw from their unconstitutional actions," Helen Clark said.
"The New Zealand Government fears for the future of Fiji when a democratically elected government, acting within the constitution, is put under this kind of pressure by a military acting outside the law."
Opposition parties supported her statement.
Helen Clark later told reporters Fiji's Parliament had not been dissolved and the cabinet was "hanging tough" behind the prime minister.
"The whole way in which the commander is mounting his coup is to get the prime minister to do his job for him, to get him to resign," Helen Clark said.
"This is an outrage what is happening in Fiji today."
- NZPA
