14 Dec 2004

Major blockade lifted in French Polynesia

9:19 pm on 14 December 2004

The blockade of French Polynesia's lands department has been lifted.

The premises in Papeete were locked by the lands minister in the ousted Oscar Temaru-led government in October when Gaston Flosse was elected president in a process described by the speaker as illegal.

The French supreme court has in the meantime ruled that the election was legal.

The minister and his supporters occupied the building amid allegations that documents had gone missing and the information stored there needed to be safeguarded.

The occupation of the terriory's data processing centre and the presidential palace has continued despite calls by political leaders to vacate the sites.