Guinea premier steps down

Guinea Prime Minister Lounseny Fall has resigned, while on a visit to New York.

During an earlier stopover in Paris, he told the weekly Jeune Afrique-L'Intelligent that he was resigning because President Lansana Conte did not give him enough room for manoeuvre to salvage the Guinean economy.

A BBC correspondent in Guinea says it is likely that the minister announced his resignation from abroad because he feared for his safety and that of his family.

Mr Fall was appointed to his post in February.

Last year, as Guinea's foreign minister, he was his country's ambassador to the UN when Guinea presided the UN security council ahead of the war in Iraq.