New York, Apr. 22 : The United Nations has been lambasted as "utterly hypocritical" for continuing to employ Fiji''s soldiers and hand money to the country''s power-hungry military regime.

New Zealand''s Foreign Minister Murray McCully has joined a host of regional commentators in challenging the international organisation''s role in giving work to Fiji''s powerful military.

The military, led by army chief Frank Bainimarama, has ruled Fiji since overthrowing a democratic government in a December 2006 coup, despite widespread and growing condemnation from regional and world leaders.

Much of the government''s income comes from UN peacekeeping assignments.

The UN Security Council this week condemned the latest developments that have seen elections delayed five years, the media sanctioned, the constitution abrogated and several top officials sacked.

"It is very hard to see how they can justify using military people who have overthrown the rule of law in their own country as the agents to enforce the rule of law as peacekeepers somewhere else," McCully told the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday.

"That seems utterly incongruous to me. It is utterly hypocritical." (ANI)