The military-backed government of Guinea, one of the poorest states in West Africa, is negotiating with a Chinese fund to bring in billions of dollars of financing for infrastructure and minerals projects – and to prospect for oil.

Talks could be concluded by the end of the year, according to Mohamed Thiam, the country's minister of mines, potentially pitching Chinese interests directly against those of the west at a time of growing competition for African resources.

Human rights groups and United Nations agencies say Guinean soldiers were involved last month in a massacre of opposition demonstrators, in which women were raped openly in the streets and more than 150 people died – prompting renewed international pressure for the junta to relinquish power to elected civilians.