The Guinean military junta's No. 2, Captain Mamadouba Toto Camara paid a brief visit to Bissau, the capital of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, where he was received by President Joao Bernardo Vieira, information monitored in Dakar said on Wednesday.
The trip was the first ever made by a member of the military junta since it took power last week.
The newly named Guinean Minister for Security and Civilian Protection arrived in Bissau on Tuesday for an hour-long visit in which he briefed President Vieira on reasons for the December 23 takeover of power by young military officers.
The military junta's No. 2 told reporters that "his visit of concentration" was aimed at explaining to the people of Guinea-Bissau why they took arms to seize power.
The coup was announced by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, Head of a 32-member National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), hours after the state radio broadcast the death of President Lansana Conte, who had ruled Guinea for 24 years.
The Minister indicated that he had talked with President Vieira on the necessity of strengthening cooperation between the two countries.
He described his visit as a trip in the sub-region to communicate the position of the new body in power and report the actual situation in Guinea.
The new ruling body has already made contacts with the "international community," notably the G8, the European Union (EU) and Foreign Ambassadors in Guinea to explain that the military officers did not launch a coup d'etat, but seized power.
According to reports from Conakry, the capital of Guinea, the military junta's No. 2 may visit other countries including Mali and Sierra Leone, apparently in a bid to break the isolation gripping the new faces in power.
Guinea, a West African country of 245,857 square km and 9.56 million population, borders Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mali in the north, Cote d'Ivoire in the east, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the south and the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
The military junta seems eager to break the impasse in which it is being widely shunned by the international community.
On Tuesday, the junta named banker Kabine Komara Prime Minister, while holding a meeting of international delegations in Conakry.
Camara, who declared himself the "President of the Republic" a day after the coup, told representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the G8 countries that it was the moment to appeal for their understanding and cooperation.
"The international sanctions or isolation ... won't be the solution to the actual problems of Guinea," he said, indicating the December 2010 Presidential election set by the military junta could be advanced to as early as within six months.
Camara's CNDD, which is composed of 26 military officers and six civilians, has an immediate target of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) in its diplomatic offensive.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Friday expressed support for Camara when the two men held a telephone conversation. He appealed to Guinea's neighbours and other countries not to interfere.
Both countries are member states of the ECOWAS, which has promised engagement with the military junta while maintaining it has zero tolerance for coup.
By contrast, the African Union suspended Guinea's membership on Monday to press for the restoration of the constitutional order and democracy.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States have also used strong wording for a quick return to the civilian rule. The EU, in particular, demands an election within three months.
Guinea won independence from France in 1958. Rich in mineral resources such as bauxite, gold and iron ore, the world's top bauxite exporter and the second biggest producer attracts billions of dollars in mining investments from foreign firms, including Rio Tinto Alcan, Alcoa and Russia's United Company Rusal.
The country, however, is placed the 160th of 177 countries in the development survey by the United Nations.