The unions and civil society groups had first threatened last month to "unleash peaceful protest actions" from January 5 if the authorities did not implement "a rapid and peaceful way out of the crisis."

"If our demands are not satisfied, we are going to launch actions ranging from strikes to dead city days," union leader Ibrahima Fofana told AFP.

Guinea has been plunged into chaos with the attempted assassination of the junta leader and a bloody crackdown on the opposition on September 28 when soldiers killed at least 156 people during a peaceful rally in a Conakry stadium.

On Tuesday the unions and civil groups held a meeting in Conakry to inform their supporters of the latest developments.

The country's military government is expected to consider their demands at a ministers' meeting Wednesday.

One demand is to know the state of health of the wounded junta leader and self-proclaimed president Moussa Dadis Camara, who remains in hospital in Morocco following surgery for a gunshot wound to the head.

"Since December 4, the date on which President Moussa Dadis Camara was evacuated to Morocco after an assassination bid (...) the Guinean people have received no reliable information on his state of health," the Guinean Social Movement (MSG) said in an open letter.

The umbrella union group added that Camara's health was a "major preoccupation which must not be hidden by erroneous statements."

Meanwhile, Guinea's interim leader, General Sekouba Konate, left Rabat Tuesday to return to Conakry after spending a week visiting the wounded Camara, a diplomatic source in Morocco told AFP.

Last week a source in Rabat close to the junta said that Konate has said that Camara "was not conscious of what was going on around him" and that "you can't get anything out of him."

Junta spokesmen have said that Camara is recovering and would return to the country as soon as possible.

Camara seized power in December 2008 immediately following the death of the country's longtime strongman Lansana Conte who had ruled Guinea since 1984.

earlier related report
US urges Guinea to restore civilian rule
Washington (AFP) Jan 5, 2010 - Top US and French diplomats held talks in Morocco Tuesday with Guinea's interim junta leader General Sekouba Konate about the need to restore civilian rule in Conakry, a US spokesman said.

Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, raised "our ideas on... seeking a peaceful resolution to the political situation in Guinea" during talks in Rabat, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.

Crowley told reporters that Carson, accompanied by his French counterpart, echoed US calls to establish "a civilian-led transition government leading to free, fair and transparent democratic elections."

The talks underscored US moves to reach out to Konate, who officials in Washington suspect may be more supportive for Guinea's return to civilian rule and democracy than the junta leader, Moussa Dadis Camara.

Crowley said Carson did not meet Camara, who is being treated in a Rabat hospital for month-old wounds sustained when his aide de camp shot him in the head during an assassination attempt.

A junta source said Camara did not seem aware of his surroundings when Konate visited him last week but Guinea's official media reported earlier that the leader is recovering and will return to Conakry as soon as possible.

Crowley hinted at US opposition to Camara's return.

"Yes," the spokesman replied when asked if US officials believed Guinea was more likely to transition back to democracy if Camara remains outside the country.

Analyst John Campbell, a former US diplomat with broad experience in Africa, said last month that Camara could return to Guinea and launch reprisals that could split the army into warring factions.

Under such a scenario, Camara could fall back on ethnic militias with ties to groups in neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia, countries that were engulfed in civil war in the 1990s.

In an interview with AFP last month, Carson's deputy William Fitzgerald echoed fears of a new, regional civil war.

"We're very concerned about these ethnic militias and the potential, if Dadis were to return, of a civil war that would spill over the borders and reinfect Sierra Leone and Liberia," Fitzgerald said.

The United States, along with international and African regional groupings, has been urging the junta to step down and make way for a transitional body since the army massacred dozens of opposition protesters on September 28.

Fitzgerald said Konate appears to be "an ideal transition leader" as he demonstrates no political ambitions.

Camara seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2008.

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