Wellington  - A narrow majority of traditional chiefs in the South Pacific Cook Islands have tried to take over the country from the elected government, Television New Zealand reported on Friday.

It said eight of the 15 High Chiefs in the House of Ariki, a purely advisory body to parliament established 42 years ago, announced they were dissolving the government elected in September 2006 and taking over leadership of the island nation of just under 20,000 people.

The breakaway group of chiefs is headed by Bruce Mita, a Maori New Zealander and former director of a funeral home in Sydney, Australia, who had held secret meetings to help them get control of the Cook Islands' natural resources, TVNZ reported.

It said Mita claimed he represented futures traders in New York and said he could make billions of dollars for the Cooks, a group of islands which are self-governing in free association with New Zealand. Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand.

TVNZ quoted one chief, Makea Vakatini Joseph Ariki, as saying, "Basically we are dissolving the leadership, the prime minister and the deputy prime minister and the ministers."

But Terepai Maoate, Deputy Prime Minister in the Cooks' capital island of Rarotonga, said, "The government of today would not recognise what has taken place today."

And Paramount chief Pa Tepaeru Ariki said, "What the Ariki is doing now, is illegal, very illegal. It is a sad day for myself and other Ariki for this to happen."

TVNZ said the House of Ariki had a purely advisory role and the chiefs had not wielded political power for more than a century. (dpa)