Guinean President Lansana Conte made a surprise visit to the town of Boke on Saturday, a day after violent protests that left a child dead there, the regional governor told AFP.

Conte, who from the Soussou ethnic group, like the local population would try to calm `his brothers`, a government source told AFP. He would also meet with representatives of the local population, he added.

Boke, 300 kilometers to the northwest of the capital Conakry, has been the scene of violent protests.

On Friday hundreds of youths Friday blocked a key rail link used to ferry bauxite in protest at the mining firm`s failure to improve their living conditions. They also looted the home of a businessman reportedly close to the president.

But as the house was being looted `a chair thrown out of one of the floors of the building landed on a child, who died instantly,` demonstrators told AFP. A police source, who did not want to be named, confirmed the death.

Demonstrators want the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG, Guinea Bauxite Company) to pay for the reconnection of drinking water supplies, repair roads in Boke and improve the local electricity network.

Guinea is the world`s top producer of Bauxite, which is used to make aluminium, and CBG has been mining bauxite in the Boke region since 1973.

Saturday`s visit was a rare public appearance for 74-year-old Conte, who has ruled the west African country since 1984. He did not attend official ceremonies marking the 50 years of Guinea`s independence earlier this month.

In recent years, Conte has violently cracked down on any protests against his regime.

Although Boke seemed mainly calm Saturday, some residents reported hearing gun shots in the town centre. A police officer, who asked not to be named, told AFP: `We are firing warning shots to keep the people from protesting today.`

A train, with about a hundred carriages loaded with bauxite, is still blocked in Boke Saturday after protesters put up barriers on the railway lines.

While Guinea 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.

Earlier this month the head of a local development organisation said it had written to the government explaining that local people were `tired of suffering in poverty in the vicinity of a mine which is enriching the rest of the planet. bm/sb/jj