20100119

OUAGADOUGOU/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's military junta has named veteran opposition politician Jean-Marie Dore as prime minister of a transition government charged with restoring civilian rule, a source close to the junta said on Tuesday.

Dore, head of the Union for the Progress of Guinea, will head a government with the task of leading the west African country towards its first democratic elections since Moussa Dadis Camara took power in a coup in December 2008.

Like Camara -- still convalescing outside the country after a December 3 assassination bid -- Dore is from one of the minority ethnic groups of Guinea's Forestiere region. His naming is hoped to persuade Camara supporters to back the transition process.

The appointment was made after discussions between Camara and Sekouba Konate, the junta's second in command who assumed control of the world's biggest bauxite exporter after Camara was shot in the head by an ex-aide de camp.

"Jean Marie Dore has been named Prime Minister," the source said. "He has been chosen not just for his experience but also for his knowledge of Guinean politics," adding that Konate was due to return to Guinea on Tuesday from Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadogou, where he met a frail and slow-speaking Camara.

The talks in Ouagadougo, during which trade unionist Rabiatou Serah Diallo and General Toto Camara were named as deputy prime ministers, were mediated by Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore.

The international community and Guinean opposition parties have demanded elections since Camara's coup sparked a political crisis which some feared could destabilise a fragile region.

That crisis intensified when security forces killed over 150 people at a pro-democracy march in September, a massacre for which the United Nations said Camara was responsible.