DAKAR, SENEGAL (Reuters) - Guinea's military leader on Sunday said he was blameless in last week's lethal crackdown on protesters that a local human rights group said killed at least 157 people and injured hundreds.

"What happened cannot be disputed," Captain Moussa Dadis Camara told Radio France International in an interview. "But on whom should responsibility be put? It cannot be put on President Dadis ... President Dadis was in his office."

The comments came on the eve of mediation talks in the capital Conakry aimed at easing tensions between Camara's government and opposition, which says he is planning to stay in power by breaking a promise to opt out of upcoming elections.

The Sept 28 violence in the No. 1 bauxite supplier has drawn broad international condemnation and analysts say the tensions threaten to further destabilise a region scarred by years of war and political turmoil.

The African Union has given Camara until mid-October to confirm that he will stay out of the Jan 31 election, threatening sanctions if he misses the deadline.

Camara, who seized power in the wake of a coup last December, declined in the interview to say if he was planning to stand in the election, saying it would be "inhuman" to comment so soon after the bloodshed.