Tensions rose in Fiji yesterday after soldiers fired on a motorcade carrying the nationalist rebel leader, Mr George Speight, within blocks of where he is holding 31 political hostages.
No one was reported injured in the incident, which Speight supporters labelled an assassination attempt, but which the military insisted was a mistake.
Mr Joseph Nata, a spokesman for Mr Speight, said that angry nationalist supporters had to be restrained from storming through the capital, Suva, in retaliation for the shooting.
"We believe it was an assassination attempt by the military," Mr Nata said. "The soldiers who fired the shots could not have fired the shots without orders. What they did was an extreme act of provocation."
Fiji has been extremely tense since Mr Speight and his men stormed parliament on May 19th, capturing the country's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, and senior members of his Labour Party. The army has responded by taking over the government and declaring martial law.
Mr Nata said the incident had imperilled the hostages.
The military, which took control on May 29th after looting erupted in Suva, apologised for the shooting. A military spokesman, Col Filipo Tarakinikini, said it was a "grave misjudgment" by the soldiers responsible.
AFP adds: Later a prominent Speight supporter raised the spectre of a bloody nationwide conflict if the military resorted to force to free the 31 hostages.
"If they should exercise a military option, then the whole country goes to dust," a former Fiji military intelligence head, Col Metuisela Mua, told Australia's ABC television. Col Mua, who has joined Mr Speight in the parliamentary compound, said installations throughout the country would be attacked.
Meanwhile, a representative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said in Suva that thousands of workers likely to be affected by overseas sanctions against Fiji can expect assistance from the international trade union movement.
Mr Ken Douglas of New Zealand said "hundreds of thousands of families may lose their livelihood as a consequence of Mr Speight's recklessness".