27 Feb 2009

Political fate of sacked Marshalls foreign minister unclear

5:33 pm on 27 February 2009

The political future of the sacked Marshall Islands Foreign Minister, Tony deBrum, seems to be unresolved.

Mr deBrum was removed from his post after he criticised the administration of President Litokwa Tomeing during a parliamentary debate.

But meetings have been continuing and Mr deBrum says he is still not sure of what will happen.

Our Marshall Islands correspondent, Giff Johnson, says parliament is in recess but given the coalition government's slim majority there is a great deal of political manoeuvering:

"There's a group that might bail out to try to form another government, on the other hand the opposition party is also working hard to try to exploit the situation to see if there's a possibility of their getting back in through a coalition with either the President or a different faction within the government party so lets just say it's fluid at the moment."

Giff Johnson reporting from Majuro