SUVA (AFP) -- Fiji coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt to set up an alternative government as Australia labeled him an arrogant military dictator who bullied opponents.

A week after the Pacific nation's fourth coup in two decades, Bainimarama said he had received intelligence that ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase was planning to set up a de facto government.

Bainimarama, who on Monday warned resistance to his coup could lead to violence, said supporters of any breakaway government were putting themselves "in harm's way".

"The military has received information that Qarase and some of his advisers are planning to set up a de facto government in the west," Bainimarama told reporters in Suva.

"Let me categorically state here and now that the military will not allow any form of any government anywhere else in Fiji.

"I appeal to all of you who have been influenced by people not to allow yourselves to be used -- you will only put yourselves in harm's way. "People influenced by Qarase are nothing but selfish people, whose only interest is to further their own agendas, not those of the nation."

Qarase said in an interview on Fijian commercial radio that he planned to return to the capital as soon as possible after fleeing following the December 5 coup but made no mention of trying to establish an alternative government.

Bainimarama continued his purge of public servants who served under Qarase while attempting to win over poor Fijians by reversing a tax hike imposed by the ousted government.

But Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said the coup remained "very unpopular" and that it could be years before Fiji's suspension from the international grouping last Friday was reversed.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer did not mince words responding to allegations from Bainimarama that he was inciting violence by urging Fijians to resist the December 5 coup peacefully.

Downer said Australia would treat the military strongman's demand to stay silent "with the contempt it deserves".

"Well, I mean, here's a military dictator who has taken over a peaceful and democratic country and is now demanding silence, not only (from) the people of Fiji who he is bullying and cajoling and threatening, but he's even threatening people from other countries," Downer told reporters in Washington.

"I think the main thing that Commodore Bainimarama should understand is that if you arrogantly seize power through the barrel of a gun, it's not going to be welcomed. "It won't be welcomed by us, and it's not being welcomed by the people of Fiji."

Downer said Bainimarama's military was using "appalling" tactics in trying to intimidate critics within Fiji.

"He's hauling people into the military barracks there who don't agree with him and humiliating them," Downer said.

"People who write letters to the editor of the newspaper critical of Commodore Bainimarama and his military dictatorship are finding the army coming to the doorsteps of their houses and threatening them. "They're getting abusive phone calls and threatening phone calls. I don't think this is a civilized way to behave, frankly."

McKinnon said the 53-nation Commonwealth was not in talks with Fiji's military regime and he expected the opening of negotiations could take anywhere from six months to a "couple of years".

Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth following a coup in 1987 and was not readmitted for a decade.