Fiji's outspoken military commander stepped up his confrontation with the government over plans to offer amnesties for a 2000 coup, saying the army would intervene if necessary, a report said on Tuesday.
Voreqe Bainimarama, who last year threatened to oust the government of the racially divided South Pacific nation, said the army did not need any special powers to act.
"We don't need any special powers to legalise our move in demanding the government to resign," he told The Fiji Times.
"And we don't have to take over because the military will walk into the office of the prime minister and demand his resignation," he added from the Middle East, where he was inspecting Fijian troops.
"If the people want us to do this, we will do it. At this stage Fiji needs good governance and the military will demand for their resignation. There is nothing illegal about this."
The military has been at odds with Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase over the planned amnesty legislation, as well as a separate bill to transfer coastal foreshores and waters from the state to local indigenous communities.
Fears have been expressed the foreshore proposal would scare away investors in the tourism industry, Fiji's largest money-spinner.
"If government can't do the right thing then (it should) resign because they have introduced policies and bills that are only taking the country backwards and not forward," the paper quoted him as saying.
Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola countered that the military should respect the choice of the people in May's election.
"The government has a role to play in the running of the country and they (the military) should respect authority as we have been put in power by the people of this country," he said.
Bainimarama had refrained from attacking the government since the elections after members of opposition leader Mahendra Chaudhry's Indian-dominated Fiji Labour Party were included in a multi-party cabinet.
But he renewed his attacks late last month, prompting the government to ask President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to refer the dispute to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the constitutional role of the military.
Chaudhry was overthrown as Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister in the May 2000 coup, which ended when Bainimarama arrested key coup plotters.
Ethnic Indians make up an estimated 37 percent of the population of 900,000 in Fiji.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was worried about the international impact of Bainimarama's comments on Fiji's image.
"New Zealand is very concerned about the commander's threats that he will overthrow the legitimate government in Suva if it does not do what he says," Peters said.