Guinea's isolated military junta has pledged to cooperate with a United Nations inquiry into last month's massacre of opposition demonstrators, the UN official leading the probe said.
UN envoy Haile Menkerios was speaking after talks in Conakry with top junta officials, including military ruler Moussa Dadis Camara and Prime Minister Kabine Komara.
"The prime minister and the president (Dadis Camara) have reassured me that they are ready to cooperate with this commission of inquiry," said Menkerios, welcoming the junta's willingness to "speak with the international community".
A source close to Sunday's talks said the UN envoy "asked for the sincere cooperation of the authorities, security for the team of investigators and for documentation to be made available".
Meanwhile, Libya, which currently holds the African Union presidency, criticised the United Nations for interfering in Guinea's internal affairs. Related article: AU criticises UN
"The African Union strongly rejects this intervention (by the UN) which it considers as interference in the internal affairs of an independent country," the official Jana news agency quoted a African Union presidency spokesman as saying.
"All intervention by the UN (in Guinea) shall be considered as a dangerous deviation of the mission of this international organisation," added the spokesman.
Menkerios said on Monday that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon was "ready to speed up the arrival of a team of investigators to Guinea", without giving further details.
He left later on Monday after meeting with senior European, Russian and US diplomats in Conakry to discuss the current situation in Guinea.
Stopping in Ouagadougou, Menkerios met with Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, who has trying to mediate a resolution in Guinea.
Compaore "assured me that the work of this commission (of inquiry) will help considerably his effort to aid the Guineans to find a peaceful solution," Menkerios told journalists after the meeting.
The UN assistant secretary general for political affairs is the highest-ranking international diplomat to have visited Guinea since troops entered a football stadium September 28 and opened fire on opposition demonstrators, killing at least 150, according to a UN estimate. The junta says 56 civilians died
His visit comes amid growing international pressure on Camara, an army captain who seized power in the mineral-rich West African state in December last year within hours of the death of strongman Lansana Conte.
The International Criminal Court will hold a separate preliminary inquiry to determine if war crimes had been committed, the source said.
Regional economic bloc ECOWAS imposed an arms embargo at the weekend, but the more powerful African Union pulled back from ordering sanctions after Camara flouted a Saturday deadline to renounce his candidature for presidential elections to be held in January.
"Legally speaking, the deadline has expired but politically, we are still working to put pressure on the junta. It's the result that matters most," said Ramtane Lamamra, the AU's top peace and security official.
He said the African Union would await a signal from Compaore to see if the junta would change its position.
"If he tells us that they are sticking to their guns, then sanctions will be enforced," Lamamra added.
The junta has meanwhile set up its own 31-member independent commission of inquiry into the massacre, which prime minister Komara said would work in tandem with the UN probe. The opposition have rejected invitations to sit on the local commission.
Menkerios said Compaore is ready to host Guineans for a "political dialogue" as he proposed during his first visit to Conakry on October 5, but was waiting for the Guineans.
"He told me that he is ready to begin the talks immediately but that depends on the Guinean parties, I hope that in one or two weeks, maybe, they could be begin," Menkerios said in Ouagadougou.
Meanwhile, Guinea authorities turned away six French television journalists at Conakry airport at the weekend, their employers said Sunday.
According to press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, several Guinean journalists have received death threats for "giving information to foreigners".
