CONAKRY, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The first country in the French West Africa to win independence from Paris, Guinea on Thursday celebrated its 50 years of independence while the country faces economic and social stagnation.

Initially due to start at around 9:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) Thursday the celebrations, in the presence of several regional leaders, started around 1.30 p.m. (1330 GMT). But President Lansana Conte was to ill to attend.

Thousands of people had gathered outside on one of the big avenues leading to the presidential palace to hear the speeches planned for the ceremony.

The ceremony started with first lady Henriette Conte laying a wreath for 'all the martyrs' of Guinea.

The president, who is 74 years old and in bad health, did have lunch with the seven regional leaders who had flown in for the celebrations including Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo and Sengalese president Abdoulaye Wade.

Earlier Thursday, families of the victims of the infamous Boiro camp, commemorated their dead at the site of the Nongo mass grave. The camp was where tens of thousands of dissidents of dictator Ahmed Sekou Toure were held in horrific conditions.

The former military camp has become synonymous with the atrocities committed by the regime of Guinea's independence-era leader. Human rights organisations say some 50,000 people were killed or disappeared during Toure's rule, which lasted from 1958 to 1984.

But the national celebrations glossed over the Toure's alleged atrocities. President Conte himself has been criticised by human rights groups for having ruled the country with an iron fist since 1984.

They started late Wednesday with a carnival of traditional dancing groups and fireworks in the capital Conakry.

In a speech broadcast on radio and television, President Conte promised to 'favour dialogue and consultation' to resolve the problems of the county, which is one of the poorest nations in the world.

Conte, a former general, did not mention Sekou Toure by name in his speech but instead praised the 'men and women who put our country on the historic road to being the master of its own destiny.

'The government and myself together vow to favour dialogue and consultations to find appropriate solutions to our problems,' he added.

Conte has violently cracked down on protests against his regime in recent years.

Earlier this year Conte faced both a mutiny by soldiers and police protests that left more than six people dead and dozens wounded, according to official figures.

Foreign affairs monitor the International Crisis Group had warned that the ongoing instability and economic malaise coupled with an ailing president and no clear successor could lead to widespread violence.

The ICG has warned that this could have a destabilizing effect on the whole West African region.

While the country has a vast mineral wealth with bauxite, iron, gold and uranium deposits, most of its nine million inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day.

The country is at the bottom of the United Nations' human development index.

Cholera is endemic in the bigger cities and only half of the population has access to clean drinking water. Some 70 percent of Guineans are illiterate and life expectancy is only 54 years.

'We want the economic and social development of our country in a free and peaceful environment. We want happiness for every Guinean,' Conte told the nation Wednesday.