* ECOWAS says will support Bissau poll

* Urges Guinea junta to stick to election promise

By Randy Fabi and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, June 22 (Reuters) - West African leaders pledged support on Monday for Guinea-Bissau ahead of elections meant to steer it out of a political crisis and urged peers in countries including Guinea and Niger to respect constitutional order.

Heads of state and government from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss a series of challenges to political stability in the least developed region of the world's poorest continent.

Until last year, the international community and investors had believed the area was emerging from decades of volatility, but a succession of coups, attacks and attempts by leaders to extend their rule have tarnished its democratic credentials.

Guinea-Bissau, which has been hit by a series of political assassinations and which is due to hold elections on June 28, was at the top of the agenda.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who holds the rotating ECOWAS chairmanship, paid three months salary arrears to the armed forces in Bissau and donated vehicles and equipment for the elections, according to a draft ECOWAS communique.

"The authority agreed to organise in Abuja an international conference of donors on Guinea-Bissau after the presidential election," the communique said.

The regional grouping also agreed on the need to send an ECOWAS team to assess the former Portuguese colony's financial needs and how it could be supported in pushing through security sector reforms.

Guinea-Bissau won independence from Portugal in 1974 after a long war but the country's history since then has been riddled with coups, political killings and instability.

Analysts say radical military reform is the only way to end the cycles of violence, which have largely continued due to the military's belief that it won a right to intervene in politics after playing such a key role in securing independence.

Some have called for the June 28 poll to be delayed after a leading presidential candidate and a former defence minister were killed by military police on June 5. Several candidates have also called for an international force.

GUINEA, NIGER

ECOWAS also called on the CNDD military junta in neighbouring Guinea to live up to its original promise to organise elections by the end of the year.

The head of the armed forces this month urged the junta in the world's biggest bauxite exporter to delay the presidential and parliamentary polls, saying the country was not ready to organise them this year. [ID:nL8521148]

"The heads of state urged the CNDD to respect its commitment to restoring constitutional order in 2009 by allowing the political parties to carry out their activities and by organising legislative and presidential elections," ECOWAS said.

Tensions have also risen in Niger since President Mamadou Tandja called for a referendum on Aug. 4 on whether he will be allowed to stay in office for a further three years.

ECOWAS, which has threatened Niger with economic sanctions if it behaves undemocratically, said it had received assurances that constitutional order would not be breached.

"The heads of state and government were reassured by the prime minister of Niger that all political stakeholders will continue to operate within the ambit of respect for the constitutional legality and the rule of law," the communique said. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) (Writing by Nick Tattersall)

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