Major who led islands' coup calls for elections

The leader of a military coup in this impoverished west African country said yesterday that he did not want to rule and would call elections.

Major Fernando Pereira, who commanded Wednesday's bloodless coup, said his troops acted to save the country from social and economic decline under President Fradique de Menezes. "We achieved our objective by taking over," Major Pereira said. "Now we have to set up a provisional government and ... create free elections. We don't want power."

The President is still in Nigeria, where he was when the coup took place. A government spokesman ruled out foreign military intervention. "We don't want troops to go in there. We're all one family," he said. "We are trying to negotiate the problem."

The former Portuguese colony of Sao Tome and Principe, two islands in the Gulf of Guinea, has the potential to become rich from oil reserves it shares with Nigeria. The region has been identified by the US as a possible replacement for Middle Eastern supplies.