Fiji coup plot may have been hatched in Auckland

Fiji's Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has been taken hostage in Suva along with up to eight other cabinet ministers.

IRN political editor Barry Soper says the military are thought to be behind the latest coup, which could have been hatched in Auckland just over a month ago.

A Fiji Indian drove former coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka when he was in Auckland several weeks ago.

In the car was a top Fiji military official and the pair were talking about a possible coup with Mr Rabuka, saying the time wasn't right.

Sources in Fiji at the time said it was a remote possibility. Today is the first anniversary of Mr Chaudry's government coming to power.

It's almost 13 years to the day since the first military coup, where the elected Government of Timothy Bavandra was marched out of Parliament by Mr Rabuka at gunpoint.

Telecom says all telephone communications to Fiji have been cut.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark is describing the crisis as a terrible setback.

She says it was thought Fiji was back on a path to real democracy.

Helen Clark says Fiji had a democratically elected government, and the situation is shocking.

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