(Adds army reaction, analyst quote)

By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY, May 12 (Reuters) - Guinean President Lansana Conte replaced his defence minister and top army officers on Saturday after days of protests by soldiers firing in the air to demand better working conditions.

General Mamadou Bailo Diallo, a retired former head of the West African state's ground forces, was named defence minister and top army commanders including four whose dismissal had been demanded by the rank and file were replaced.

Sporadic gunfire rang out at the Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp next to Conakry's international airport even after Conte's decree was read on state radio, apparently because some junior officers wanted to put their demands to the president in person.

"The president hasn't come here as expected and there are certain young soldiers who are still not happy. They fired a few shots," one army officer told Reuters, asking not to be named.

Mutinous soldiers firing their weapons into the air stormed through the streets of the capital and other cities on Friday, killing six people and injuring at least 70 as they demanded the dismissal of senior commanders and a pay rise.

The shooting followed widespread protests in garrisons across the former French colony a week ago, underlining the simmering instability of the world's largest bauxite exporter, which was rocked by violent strikes in January and February.

The armed forces received a hefty pay increase in March, shortly after they had helped to quell the strikes and riots against Conte, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s whose opponents say is unfit to rule.

At least 137 people were killed in the violence earlier this year, mostly demonstrators shot by soldiers and police.

The army, riven by generational and ethnic divisions, has shored up Conte's autocratic rule since he seized power in a coup in 1984, but analysts have raised doubts over how long it will remain loyal in the face of increasingly vocal opposition.

Conte's relationship with the military has long been a difficult one: soldiers used heavy weaponry to bombard the presidential palace during a 1996 mutiny to demand higher wages.

"Protesting soldiers in any country are not a positive sign, but this casts a particularly dark cloud over Guinea's security situation in light of its history of military uprisings," Kissy Agyeman, Africa analyst at research group Global Insight, said.

"Conte's authority -- or what is left of it -- is largely propped up by the loyalty of the army, thus if he wishes to remain in power he must address the army's demands speedily." (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Dakar)

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