SUVA A minister in Fiji's post-coup, army-backed government was unexpectedly sworn in as prime minister of the racially split nation on Wednesday and said elections would be held within five months.

Ratu Tevita Momoedonu was sworn in by his uncle, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, during a ceremony convened hastily at Lautoka, on the northwest of Fiji's main island Viti Levu.

Momoedonu was labor minister in the post-coup government -- which has since been declared illegal -- and was also a minister in the multiracial pre-coup government of Mahendra Chaudhry.

"It was entirely the president's prerogative and I accepted the task to try to facilitate in the smooth and normal running of the country," Momoedonu told Reuters of his surprise nomination.

Momoedonu said he would recommend to Iloilo that general elections be held some time in August. Iloilo is due to be sworn in formally as president on Thursday after being appointed by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs on Tuesday.

----------- Ways Out of Crisis ---------

Iloilo and the chiefs, a gathering of indigenous rulers, have been trying to find a way out of Fiji's political crisis since the Court of Appeal ruled on March 1 that the military-backed government of interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was illegal.

Qarase was installed after failed businessman George Speight, who proclaimed himself a champion of indigenous Fijians battling the economic supremacy of the Indian minority, took Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, hostage last May 19.

The two most likely options Iloilo had faced where to dissolve Parliament and call elections or to appoint a government of national unity.

Momoedonu said he would advise Iloilo to recall Parliament and dissolve it immediately, freeing the way under the Constitution for a caretaker government to lead the Pacific nation to elections.

Momoedonu said it was possible he could act in the role for only a short time and that Iloilo could install another caretaker government once Parliament was dissolved.

----------- Surprise Move -----------

Momoedonu's appointment was a surprise move by Iloilo, who had been expected to name Qarase as caretaker premier.

Since the court ruling, Iloilo has stressed the need to avoid the widespread violence against ethnic Indians which was sparked by Speight and his indigenous supporters.

Indo-Fijians make up 44 percent of the population of 800,000 and dominate the sugar and tourism driven economy.

Chaudhry, who said he had received his formal letter of dismissal from Iloilo on Wednesday, described Momoedonu's appointment as unconstitutional. "Ratu Tevita's appointment as caretaker prime minister is unconstitutional and unlawful," Chaudhry told reporters.

"I'm disappointed the president has taken this stance."

Chaudhry's People's Coalition, which was democratically elected in 1999, won broad support in the court of appeal ruling on March 1.

The Great Council of Chiefs said earlier on Wednesday it favored early elections to end the political crisis.

But the chiefs, who drew up a six-point plan after meetings spanning a week, also said they would support whatever action the president takes.

The chiefs, an enclave of traditional rulers put in place in 1874 when Fiji was ceded to Britain as a colony, had expected Iloilo to seek legal advice over the next two days before announcing how he planned to return Fiji to democratic rule.

Iloilo and Momoedonu are from the same village of Viseisei, where Melanesian settlement of the 340 Fijian islands began. Dr Timoci Bavadra, Prime Minister of Fiji's first multiracial government, was also from Viseisei.

(Reuter)