(Recasts with Conte delegating some powers) By Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Guinean President Lansana Conte delegated some of his powers to a new prime minister on Wednesday, complying with a promise made to unions which had locked the nation in a crippling two-week general strike. The industrial action, the biggest challenge yet to Conte's near quarter century in power, triggered violent clashes with police and soldiers in which more than 90 people were killed and at least 300 injured, according to a local human rights group. In a decree read on state radio, Conte said the new premier -- who is yet to be named -- would be the head of government, free to propose his own team of ministers, organise the country's civil administration and be allowed to represent the head of state at international functions. "The prime minister, head of government, is tasked with controlling, coordinating and driving the government's actions," the decree said. Strike leaders had demanded a new premier take over as the head of the West African country's government, a role previously assumed by Conte, because they said the reclusive leader -- a diabetic in his 70s -- was no longer fit to rule. The unions suspended their strike action late on Saturday after receiving a pledge from Conte to appoint a new prime minister with broader powers. Saturday's agreement was signed by the head of the Supreme Court and the National Assembly as well as union leaders and a representative of business leaders, but had not yet been given Conte's official seal of approval. "BEATEN LIKE CATTLE" The most violent day of the strike was Monday, Jan. 22, when thousands of demonstrators from the suburbs were prevented from marching on the administrative heart of the oceanside capital Conakry by soldiers and police officers who opened fire. The official government death toll from the two-week strike is 35 dead and 150 injured but rights campaigners say it is much higher. Conakry's main hospital morgue registered 33 deaths from gunshot wounds on Jan. 22 alone. "There are 90 dead and 300 injured so far ... Unfortunately this figure is provisional and we will probably soon pass beyond 100 dead," Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of Guinea's Human Rights League, told Reuters. He said a commission was still working to count the number of dead, injured and arrested in outlying suburbs. Muslim tradition in the former French colony means some of those killed will have been quickly buried, without being registered. "People including old men and women were beaten like cattle. The red berets (Presidential Guard) climbed over them and trampled on them," Sow said. Hospitals have been struggling to cope in a country where civilian doctors are not trained to deal with gunshot wounds. International aid agencies have been asked to fly medical supplies and humanitarian workers to towns in the interior. The authorities have launched an appeal for blood donations as supplies in hospitals run out. "When the strike started we only had 40 packets of blood, collected the day before and shared between Conakry's two hospitals," said Andre Loua, director of the national blood transfusion centre (CNTS). "After the events of January 22, all of the stocks ran out and we were overwhelmed," he said.
