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CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guineans were guardedly optimistic on Thursday about prospects for a move to civilian rule and a future without hospitalised military junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

Acting head of state Sekouba Konate said on Wednesday Camara would need time to recover from a failed assassination bid in December, and that a prime minister from the opposition should head a unity government.

"It's positive for Guineans, because everybody wants a change," said Aboubacar Camara, an unemployed 30-year-old in the ramshackle capital Conakry, where huge army bases sit alongside patched-up bars and fish markets.

Guineans, initially hopeful when the Camara-led National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) seized power in December 2008 after loathed strongman ruler Lansana Conte died, long since lost faith in the junta.

The major turning point was September 28, when security forces killed more than 150 unarmed pro-democracy marchers and raped dozens of women in what a U.N. report described as crimes against humanity.

Since then, the country has been internationally isolated and economic activity has slowed, cutting jobs and making basic goods more expensive for Guineans, who hope the next leader pays more attention to the needs of the people.

"It's a question of doing something for the people, not of being in power without doing anything," said Conakry resident Djibril Camara.

The international community has welcomed the sidelining of Camara, the military ruler whose implication in the September 28 massacre had rendered him persona non grata even before a December 3 gun attack by an ex-aide that put him in a Moroccan clinic.