A former army chief convicted of plotting a coup against Fiji's military regime was jailed for five years Wednesday, with a judge labeling his actions "treasonous and mutinous", reports said.

Former Land Force commander Pita Driti was found guilty last month of leading a 2010 plot to overthrow military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama and assassinate Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Fiji's military regime Thursday unveiled a new constitution to serve as a blueprint for 2014 elections, the first polls to be held in the Pacific nation since the government seized power in a coup seven years ago.

The document "will underpin the first genuine democracy in Fijian history" and enshrine the principle of one person one vote, the government said.

Fiji has announced it will send a further 380 troops to join a U.N. peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights, lifting the Pacific nation's contribution to 562.

The move comes after several countries withdrew from the peacekeeping force due to escalating violence stemming from the Syrian conflict.

Fiji's 2009 French championship winning wing Samueli Naulu was killed in a car crash on Saturday, local police and his club confirmed.

According to the police the 31-year-old, who was playing for fifth division side Bergerac, lost control of his car at around 0500GMT and hit a tree some 20km south of Bergerac.

Flash floods and power cuts hit the Samoan capital Apia Thursday as Tropical Cyclone Evan lashed the Pacific island nation with high winds and heavy rain, witnesses said.

Meteorologists said the category two cyclone, packing wind gusts exceeding 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph), made landfall in the early afternoon and was expected to intensify after moving out to sea.

Flood-ravaged Fiji declared a state of emergency Sunday and warned tourists to stay away for the time being, as heavy rain and high winds continued to pound the South Pacific nation.

Officials said they could not guarantee visitors' safety in the wake of flash floods that have killed at least two people and forced more than 5,000 to take shelter in evacuation centers.

Scientists have discovered a new flowering plant belonging to the scarce Medinilla group on Fiji's Kadavu island, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Friday.

"Although the plant was first found in August of 2010, it has taken this long to go through the process and verify it," IUCN spokeswoman Ewa Ewa Magiera told Agence France Presse.

Fiji's military government will move Saturday to lift a state of emergency it imposed in 2009, as the country prepares to open consultation on a new constitution, Prime MinisterFrank Bainimarama said in a New Year's message.

The Public Emergency Regulations gave police and the military extended powers, imposed tough censorship on the South Pacific nation's media and tightly controlled public assembly.