A cabinet statement issued late on Monday described the omission as unacceptable and recommended that the information minister restructure the two organisations to make them more effective.

Francisco Ndecky, head of the Television Workers' Union (TGB), said the decision was rash, given that the government had never addressed poor working conditions at the station which has only one editing machine and one vehicle.

He urged the government to appoint a commission to investigate problems in state media before taking action. Francelino Cunha, dismissed as head of state television, was appointed only three months ago.

The cash-strapped government of the volatile former Portuguese colony, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies on foreign aid to keep afloat.

Dependent on exports of cashew nuts, whose price has dropped, Bissau has recently become a haven for powerful South American drug cartels seeking to traffick cocaine into Europe.

Two-thirds of Guinea-Bissau's 1.4 million population live on under one dollar a day. The two main teachers' unions began a three-day strike on Tuesday to protest at unpaid wages and poor working conditions, following a similar protest last week.

Vieira appointed Prime Minister Martinho Ndafa Kabi in April to head a consensus government tasked with reform, ending a month-long crisis after parties ousted the former prime minister.

Vieira, who ruled for nearly 20 years after toppling President Luis Cabral in 1980, was unseated in a 1998-1999 civil war but returned to power in a controversial 2005 election.