Army denies coup attempt as African leader assassinated

The president of tiny African state Guinea-Bissau was assassinated in his palace today hours after a bomb killed his rival, the head of the military.

Despite the deaths of the country's two most powerful men, the army insisted there was no coup and a statement broadcast on state radio attributed President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira's death to an "isolated" group of unidentified soldiers now being hunted by the armed forces.

The capital, Bissau, was relatively calm despite the pre-dawn gunfight at the palace, which erupted hours after armed forces chief of staff General Batiste Tagme na Waie - a rival of the president - was killed by the bomb at his headquarters.

The former Portuguese colony with a population of 1.5 million has suffered multiple coups and attempted coups since 1980, when Vieira himself first took power in one. The United Nations says the country, the world's fifth poorest, has recently become a key transit point for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe.

Following an emergency Cabinet meeting a military spokesman said: "We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic.

"The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested, but we are pursuing them. They are an isolated group. The situation is under control."

The constitution calls for parliament chief Raimundo Pereira to succeed the president in the event of his death.

Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr. said the fact that the military did not go through with a coup deserves praise. "The military showed their patriotism by not seizing power," he said, adding that both Vieira and Waie will receive state funerals in the coming days.

Vieira ruled Guinea-Bissau for 23 of the past 29 years. He came to power in the 1980 coup, but was forced out 19 years later at the onset of the country's civil war. He later returned from exile in Portugal to run in the country's 2005 election and won the vote.

The armed forces' statement dismissed claims that the military killed Vieira in retaliation for Waie's assassination. The two men were considered political and ethnic rivals and both had survived recent assassination attempts.

Vieira, from the minority Papel ethnic group, once blamed majority ethnic Balanta officers for attempting a coup against him, condemning several to death and others to long prison sentences.

Among them was Waie, who in the late 1980s was dropped off on a deserted island off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and left there for years before he was allowed to return and officially pardoned by Vieira.

The bomb that killed Waie had been hidden underneath the staircase leading to his office.

Hours later, volleys of automatic gunfire rang out for at least two hours before dawn in Bissau and residents said soldiers had converged on Vieira's palace.

The Portuguese news agency LUSA reported that troops attacked the palace with rockets and rifles.

It was the second attack on Vieira in recent months. In November, his residence was attacked by soldiers with automatic weapons who killed at least one of his guards. The president complained later that the army never intervened, leaving his presidential guard to fight off the attackers.

In January, Waie received a call from the presidency asking him to come at once but when he went outside to get into his car gunmen opened fire. He narrowly escaped.

The African Union condemned the killings, calling them "cowardly and heinous attacks which have come at a time of renewed efforts by the international community to support peace-building efforts in Guinea-Bissau."

In Lisbon, the Portuguese Foreign Ministry lamented Vieira's death and said it was "fundamental that all political and military authorities in the country respect the constitutional order".