(Adds background, opposition reaction to poll date) CONAKRY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Guinea's military rulers said on Saturday they have suspended the finance minister, the latest announcement suggesting instability amongst the soldiers now running the world's top bauxite exporter. "The President of the Republic decrees that Captain Mamadou Sande, Minister for Finance and Economy, has been suspended until further notice," Captain Mandjou Dioubate, a spokesman for the military government, said on state television. Dioubate gave no reason for the suspension. A senior official in the Finance Ministry said he was not aware of the reason. Sande's suspension follows the arrest in late January of three officers within the junta who were accused of plotting to destabilise the new administration. The National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) junta, which seized power in a December coup after the death of President Lansana Conte, announced late on Friday that it would hold elections before the end of 2009. Opposition parties and civil society organisations welcomed the announcement but called on Saturday for the junta to hold both parliamentary and presidential elections this year and end a ban on political parties organising any events. The military takeover was welcomed by many in Guinea and has received some support from neighbouring states in West Africa. But the junta had come under international pressure to set an early date for elections. The former French colony has been suspended from both the West African bloc ECOWAS and the African Union, which prevented junta representatives taking full part in its summit meeting in Addis Ababa this week. Guinea is the world's top exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite but most of its people live in poverty and the death of Conte, who ruled with an iron fist for 24 years, has raised fears of greater political instability in the fragile country. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; writing by David Lewis)
Soldiers are seen at the military camp Alpha Yaya Diallo in Connakry December 27, 2008. Guinea's military junta was boosted by the endorsement of neighbouring Senegal as it attempted to garner ...
