Wellington - Fiji strongman Voreqe Bainimarama was back in charge on Saturday, two days after his military government was declared illegal by the Court of Appeal, according to news reports from the capital Suva. Bainimarama, who has governed the country since he ousted the elected government in a bloodless military coup in December 2006, was sworn in by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo as caretaker prime minister for the next five years.

After Bainmarama took the oath of office Saturday morning, all nine members of his cabinet, which the three judges of the Court of Appeal ruled Thursday had been unlawfully appointed, were sworn in again in an afternoon ceremony.

The sick and ageing president on Friday sacked the judges, revoked the 12-year-old constitution, declared himself head of state and introduced emergency rule, including posting censors in local newspapers, radio and television stations.

In a televised address to the nation, Bainimarama vowed to hold a general election no later than September 2014, under an electoral system based on equal suffrage and said Fiji now had an opportunity "to start afresh on a clean slate to build a modern and improved nation," the Fiji Times online reported.

"We cannot be beholden to petty politics, community politics, provincial politics and religious politics," he said. "We need to grow up and mature if we are to survive in a highly competitive environment."

The actions of Iloilo, who is reported to be 89, defied the judges, who had specifically directed him not to appoint Bainimarama, or Laisenia Qarase, the man he ousted, in the caretaker role pending new elections.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that the decision to revoke the 1997 constitution and declare a public emergency in Fiji was a "clear attempt to prolong rule by an unelected executive", and "a clear rejection of the legal process."

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said abrogating the constitution, dismissing judges and now introducing emergency measures that curb the media and deny citizens freedom of political expression "is a sorry recipe that has been tried by dictators in a number of other countries, always with tragic consequences."

McCully said the government's reaction to the court decision would only harm the ordinary people of Fiji and alienate the international community even further.

The developments were also condemned by the British Commonwealth, the United States and Australia, who have all suspended aid to the Pacific island nation of about 837,000 people pending a return to democracy.

The president told the nation in a televised address on Friday that the new interim government would need five years to implement reforms required before "true democratic and parliamentary elections" could be held. (dpa)