The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Suva

The president of the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru declared an emergency Friday, dissolved parliament and called new elections next week in a bid to boost his grip on the government amid a fierce row with the opposition.

The political crisis in the impoverished country of 12,000 people stems from the fact that President Marcus Stephen's government holds only half of the 18 seats of parliament while feuding with opposition lawmakers.

Rioters last month set fire to the main police station during a weekend protest by about 100 young people in Nauru, a 8.4-square-mile island halfway between Australia and Hawaii. There were unconfirmed rumors that opposition politicians fueled the riots.

Stephen said in a statement Friday that Nauru's political process was "seriously compromised" by the opposition's "self-serving agenda of economic destruction, which is now starting to hurt every Nauruan."