The airport in Zaire's capital was shut Friday in the turmoil following a failed coup attempt against President Mobutu Sese Seko, Congolese aviation officials said.

Rebel troops briefly seized Zaire's national radio and television center Thursday but were driven out with gunfire. Shooting was heard again Friday in Kinshasa, the Zairean capital, but there were few details.The ferries that link Kinshasa and Brazzaville, just across the Congo River, have been inactive for several days.

Zaire, a nation of 35 million people, has been in turmoil since September, when a mutiny by underpaid soldiers caused widespread rioting. That forced Mobutu, Zaire's authoritarian ruler for 26 years, to allow an opposition leader to become prime minister.

Mobutu later ousted the leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, and appointed another opposition figure, Nguza Karl-I-Bond. But the mainstream opposition views Karl-I-Bond as a traitor.

Mobutu had promised to hold a national conference on democracy but canceled it Sunday. Rebellious soldiers seized the national radio building for a few hours Thursday, demanding that Mobutu and Karl-I-Bond resign.

The presidential guard put down the uprising and retook the station in fighting that left one rebel and one loyalist soldier dead.

Karl-I-Bond on Friday accused opposition parties of orchestrating the attempted radio takeover.

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Karl-I-Bond, who supported the democracy conference until Mobutu named him prime minister, said opposition delegates had exceeded their mandate by trying to take control of the meeting from Mobutu's followers.

The United States said Karl-I-Bond and Mobutu were not living up to their promises for democracy.

"We call on the government to reopen the national conference immediately. Its suspension offers little prospect for national reconciliation and democracy," the U.S. statement said.

Mobutu was a key Cold War ally of the West, allowing security services to use Zairean territory to fight Marxist states. His star faded as regional conflicts were resolved in recent years, and Western capitals have slashed aid.

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