GBissau-politics BISSAU, Oct 10 (AFP) - Guinea-Bissau's President Kumba Yala has named members to a new State Council to advise him regarding key decisions such as declarations of war or a state of emergency, officials said Tuesday. The consultative body includes members of all political parties represented in parliament as well as civic organisations, according to officials in the small west African country, where Yala won elections in January. "Those who consider us totalitarian are wrong," Yala said as he swore in the new body. At the polls, he defeated the candidate backed by a military junta led by former army chief General Ansumane Mane. Observers noted that the council will be taking over the political role played by the junta after it ousted president Joao Bernardo Vieira in a May 1999 coup and ran the country alongside politicians until the poll. On October 4, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said "the former military junta still seems reluctant to give up the role it played during the transitional period" before Yala was sworn in last February. Annan also warned that the Bissau government was in severe financial difficulty and said that the need to pay the salaries of almost 26,000 soldiers "continues to pose an especially worrisome burden". The UN Security Council subsequently called on the military to stay out of politics in Guinea-Bissau, while urging donor nations to come up with needed financial assistance. aye-at/nb/gd _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------