The former president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, says his Sandinista party is ready to take up arms if necessary to defend what he called the social gains of the revolution.

Mr Ortega was speaking to a crowd of thousands of party supporters on the nineteenth anniversary of their revolution in the main square of the capital, Managua.

Mr Ortega called on the government of the conservative President Arnoldo Aleman to act responsibly and not to force the Sandinistas to fight.

The former president also appealed to party members to overcome their internal divisions so they could win local elections in the year two-thousand.

The Sandinistas have been the main opposition party in Nicaragua since losing the presidential election in 1990.