CONAKRY — Guinea's junta and the opposition have each set up commissions to negotiate the membership of a transitional government, a source close to incoming prime minister Jean-Marie Dore said Monday.

Talks were under way between the interim president, General Sekouba Konate, and the prime minister, in order to form a government team that could run the west African country for six months and organise elections, the source said.

"Two commissions have been set up, one by the Forum of Active Forces (a coalition of opposition parties, trade unions and civil society organisations) and the other by the junta, in order to come up with a consensual governmental structure," added the source close to Dore, who asked not to be named.

Guinea has been under military rule since December 23, 2008, and a crisis erupted last September 28 when troops massacred more than 150 people during an opposition rally in a Conakry stadium. Hundreds of others were injured and many women and young girls were raped, according to a United Nations investigation and human rights groups.

The UN has blamed junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, among others, for the killing, but Camara has been sidelined in Guinea's politics after being shot and seriously wounded by his aide de camp in an apparent assassination bid on December 3. He is currently convalescing in Burkina Faso.

In the past few weeks, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso has been mediating a way out of the crisis and military rule and the rival parties have agreed to share power in a transitional government that will hold elections within six months.

The make-up of the government could be known "before the end of the week," the source said, though "with what we're currently seeing on the sidelines, there's a risk it will take some time."

Other sources said that the transitional government would not be formed until the middle of next week.

The formal transfer of power from outgoing Prime Minister Kanibe Komara and the 71-year-old Dore, is due on Tuesday, said the source close to the incoming leader, who was appointed on January 19.

According to members of both commissions, the government should consist of 30 members, 20 of them chosen by the Active Forces and other political parties, and the other 10 chosen by the National Council for Democracy and Development, as the junta calls itself.

Sources said Monday that opinions varied about the creation of two posts of deputy prime minister, one for union leader Rabiatou Serah Diallo and the other for the first vice-president of the junta, General Mamadouba "Toto" Camara.

Within the commission formed by Konate, some were favourable to the deputy prime ministers' jobs, the sources said, while others argued that it would be preferable to set up two ministries, responsible respectively for security and for territorial administration.

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