Guinea has indefinitely postponed legislative elections initially set for December 29 to meet opposition demands for a role in planning the polls to prevent fraud, officials said.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has also suspended its activity for two weeks, as demanded by the opposition, CENI said in a statement issued late Sunday.

CENI took the decision after meeting with mediators led by Monsignor Albert David Gomez, the Anglican archbishop of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.

The west African country's opposition wants a role in the planning for the elections, accusing the government and CENI of setting the December 29 date without consultation and of planning to hold sham elections.

Security forces cracked down hard on a demonstration protesting the setting of the date in September, killing at least two people and carrying out hundreds of arrests.

The mediating committee "had one single mission, getting CENI to temporarily suspend its activities to allow the political class and the government pursue dialogue around the holding of the legislative elections," the statement said.

The 18-member CENI decided unanimously to postpone the elections "to a later date ... out of concern for keeping the peace in the country and agreement between different political actors on the one hand, and to maintain its independence on the other," it said.