Envoys try to avert Bissau coup after leader killed

Bissau, 03 March-(ANA)- African and Portuguese-speaking envoys have flown to Guinea-Bissau  to try to head off a possible coup after the president and army chief were killed.

Soldiers guarded strategic locations in the capital Bissau and local media said the National Assembly would meet.

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The army has denied any wish to seize power, but it was unclear who controlled the poor former Portuguese colony of 1.6 million, where the involvement of drug traffickers has worsened years of instability. The borders remained closed.

President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira and his long-standing rival General Batista Tagme Na Wai, the armed forces chief, were killed in separate attacks hours apart on Sunday and Monday.

"The African Union appeals urgently to the political parties and actors of this country to exercise restraint and refrain from plunging the country once again into a spiral of power struggle," the continental body said in a statement.(ANA)

FA/ANA/03 March 2009---