EU extends sanctions against Fiji

Aid to the country's key sugar sector is also hit.
Humanitarian aid and direct support to civil society can continue.
"The European council is not satisfied with the assertion that there will be no fresh elections until 2014," an EU official said.
Originally there were to be elections this year.
Shortly before the EU introduced its "appropriate measures" against Fiji, representatives of the island's then interim government made a deal with the EU to guarantee an aid package worth over 300 million dollars.
However that package was conditional on Fiji moving towards democracy, following the coup in December 2006.
In May, the European Commission cancelled a grant worth more than 31 million dollars to Fiji in a sign of growing international impatience at the military regime's refusal to hold elections.
On September 1, the Commonwealth of Nations suspended Fiji's membership after its military ruler refused to meet demands to call elections by October next year.
The United States and Fiji's most affluent near neighbours, Australia and New Zealand, have also imposed targeted sanctions.
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