Fourteen soldiers who supported him received lesser prison sentences.

The men could have been executed by firing squad for staging the 2000 shoot-out which left eight men dead - three loyalists and five rebel soldiers.

Some of the mutineers said, "Thank you, sir" as the military court's decision was read out.

Their leader, Captain Shane Steve stood expressionless when his sentence was read out.

Another officer, Lieutenant Charles Dakuliga, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The rest were given sentences ranging from 18 months to three years.

Failed coup

Before the sentences were announced, Fiji's Government had signalled its plans to abolish capital punishment in the armed forces.

The former soldiers of the elite Counter Revolutionary Warfare unit were convicted last week of staging the November 2000 mutiny, which took place at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in the capital Suva.

It came six months after a racially-inspired coup in May of the same year, during which indigenous Fijians overthrew the country's first ethnic Indian prime minister.

Military commander Frank Bainimarama was forced to flee the barracks during the fighting.

Members of the elite unit were also involved in the May coup, led by failed businessman George Speight.

Speight - who held Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his government hostage for almost two months - is now serving a life sentence for treason.

Fiji has been rocked by three coups since 1987, fuelled by fears among indigenous Fijians that economically powerful ethnic Indian community would politically dominate the islands in the Pacific.

Fiji is now run by an elected coalition government dominated by the nationalist Fijian United Party of the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase.

Indians were first brought to Fiji by Britain in the late 1800s to cut sugar cane, and they now make up more than 40% of the 800,000 population.