By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY, July 5 (Reuters) - Guinea's powerful unions have launched a broadside against the country's consensus prime minister, whom they helped bring to power earlier this year, for failing to tackle the high cost of basic goods and utilities.

Veteran President Lansana Conte named Lansana Kouyate as prime minister in February under a deal to end a crippling general strike led by the unions and violent protests against his 23-year rule in which some 137 people were killed.

Kouyate, a respected career diplomat, was picked by the president from a list put forward by the unions. His nomination was greeted with popular outbursts of joy and relief in the West African country's dilapidated capital Conakry.

But less than five months on, anger at the high price of basic commodities is resurfacing. The main unions have written to Kouyate condemning the government's failure to tackle some of the causes of this year's unrest.

"You make public statements which you then do not respect," the main CNTG and USTG union federations said in the letter, seen by Reuters late on Wednesday.

"This is the case with water, electricity, transport, the price of basic foodstuffs at market and the valuation of the national currency," the letter said.

Kouyate has been in Ghana for an African Union summit this week and his office has not yet responded to the letter.

The unions' complaints come after several protests in Conakry suburbs last week against the rising cost of living. Inflation in the world's top bauxite exporter is running at around 30 percent.

The unions also criticised the choice of regional prefects and governors named last month by Conte, based on suggestions from Kouyate. The new team of eight governors and 33 prefects included several old Conte allies.

"Prime Minister, why recycle civil servants from the territorial administration back into senior posts when several of them contributed to bad governance," the letter said.

The strikes launched by the unions earlier this year triggered nationwide protests which brought the former French colony to a grinding halt, interrupting bauxite exports and causing food shortages across the country.

In their letter, the unions criticised the government's slowness in investigating a violent crackdown by the security forces on the protests in January and February.

Most of those killed were shot by riot police and soldiers armed with tear gas grenades and assault rifles, who opened fire in suburbs around Conakry and other towns to stop stone-throwing protesters attacking administrative buildings.

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