Guinean soldiers rioting over unpaid wages shot dead two people and wounded dozens of others as they rampaged through several cities and towns, witnesses said on Friday.

A soldier and a civilian night watchman were killed while 73 people, most of them civilians, were wounded in two days of violent protest over pay increases and arrears.

"A corporal was killed yesterday [Thursday] by a sergeant at Labe, where gunfire was heard on Wednesday and Thursday evening," said a senior army official who asked not to be named.

Labe is in central Guinea, about 200km north-east of Conakry.

The soldiers riddled a security guard with bullets on Thursday night when he said he would denounce them after they left their barracks in the town of Nzerekore in the east of the country, a member of his family said by telephone.

It is the second night of trouble involving the military, which is demanding unpaid salaries totalling 300-million Guinean francs (about $100 000).

According to several witnesses, gunfire reverberated all night from military camps in Conakry, Macenta, which is about 800km south of Conakry; Kankan, about 600km east of the capital; and from south-eastern Nzerekore and Faranah.

The army alleges that the authorities have been holding back wages since 1996, the year when one mutiny claimed the lives of 300 soldiers.

Trouble started on Wednesday at the country's largest camp, Alpha Yaya Diallo, situated near the airport and where ailing President Lansana Conte's official residence is situated. The camp houses elite commando and parachute units, and is also the army headquarters.

On Wednesday night, masked soldiers attacked and ransacked the residence of Kerfalla Camara, the army commander.

Calm was reported to have returned on Friday to the affected areas.

The rioting by an army that has shored up Conte's rule for years is the first to hit the new government of consensus Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate, who was appointed in April after weeks of strikes against the regime. -- Sapa-AFP