The International Contact Group on Guinea (ICGG) has ordered the military junta to formalise arrangements by Friday that would rule out their participation in the presidential elections billed for January 2009.

An ICGG communiqué following its meeting in Abuja on the Guinean crisis, called on the junta regime to "immediately release all those arbitrarily arrested, and particularly those held in custody in connection with the September 28 incident" in Conakry during which the presidential guards killed an estimated 150 civilian protesters.

On Friday, a meeting of African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) is scheduled to be held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa that would discuss possible sanctions against the military junta.

The ICGG comprises diplomats from Ecowas, the UN, the AU, the European Union and representatives of world human rights defence watchdogs.

The communiqué also considered a report by the Ecowas mediator in the Guinean conflict, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.