Conakry: Guinea's new military ruler said on Friday he had no intention of clinging to power and that it was vital to stamp out nepotism in the West African country.

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara's junta was endorsed by deposed Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare on Thursday, but Washington condemned the coup in the world's biggest exporter of aluminum ore bauxite and demanded an immediate return to civilian rule.

"We are patriots ... We have no intention of clinging on to power," Camara, whose junta has promised to hold an election in two years' time, said in comments broadcast by France 24 TV.

"We must hold an election, free and transparent, in a dignified way to honor Guinea, to honor the Guinean army. The future of our country is peace, freedom, reconciliation," said the army officer, little known before the coup.

"After that, the most important thing is to fight injustice, nepotism, in order to take up the challenge of relaunching the economy of our country."

The coup went ahead in the political vacuum caused by the death on Monday of President Lansana Conte, the diabetic chain-smoking general who had ruled the former French colony with an iron fist since seizing power in 1984.

Camara, chosen on Wednesday to lead the 32-member National Council for Democracy and Development junta, has vowed to fight the corruption that he said had become endemic under Conte's rule. He says he will not stand in the planned election.

Source : Reuters