KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark is taking a cautious approach to Fiji coup leader Frank Bainimarama's comments he might seek to change the country's constitution ahead of elections scheduled for 2009.
Commodore Bainimarama signed an agreement last week at the Pacific Island Forum to move Fiji toward elections, following last December's coup.
Under the agreement he committed to holding elections in the first quarter of 2009 and promised his military regime would abide by the result.
Included in the agreement was a commitment from the Fijian interim government to work with the Forum Joint Working Group to produce a "credible election roadmap" under Fiji's existing constitution.
But a day after the forum leaders' retreat Bainimarama said he was considering changes to one or two clauses in the constitution.
Miss Clark today said his defiant stance came as no surprise, but that observers should wait "dust to settle" to see what actually happened on the ground.
"There are other people back in Fiji who are desperate to see a return to constitutional government, so Fiji can resume a more normal life," she said on Newstalk ZB.
- NZPA
