20091207

AFP - Guinea junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara is unable to communicate after being shot by an aide and operated on in Morocco for a head wound, his foreign minister said in an interview on Monday.

"I have seen President Dadis. He recognises his entourage," Alexandre Cece Loua told Radio France Internationale from Rabat.

Asked whether he can engage in conversations, the minister said: "No, not for the time being. On the advice of doctors, he cannot yet communicate."

Cece Loua had previously said the junta leader underwent surgery for a head wound and his condition was "very favourable."

"His life is not in danger," he said.

He has indicated Camara may address the nation in the coming days.

Camara was wounded Thursday when his aide de camp, Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, allegedly shot him in what a junta spokesman said was a bid to seize power in the west African country.

Opposition leader and former prime minister Cellou Dadis Diallo denied there had been a coup attempt and called the shooting a "a settling of scores between two people who were accomplices but who have since fallen out."

Guinea has been tense since junta soldiers carried out a massacre of opposition supporters at a stadium rally in September.

Camara seized power in a coup a year ago following the death of longtime leader Lansana Conte.