Bissau - Tiny West African nation Guinea Bissau has arrested the head of its navy after he allegedly telephoned senior officers and asked them to help overthrow President Joao Bernardo Vieira, reports said.

"We have foiled a coup attempt that was to have been carried out early on Thursday by a group of officers led by Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, head of the navy," the BBC reported army spokesman Col Arsenio Balde as telling reporters late Friday in Bissau.

Balde said that Na Tchuto, who is under house arrest, was turned in by senior army officers after he asked them to join the coup attempt.

Guinea Bissau is currently in the grip of political turmoil after President Vieira dissolved parliament earlier this week.

Vieria took the decision after the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which had 45 seats in the 100-member parliament, abandoned a national stability pact between the three leading parties.

The pact was intended to stabilize conditions in one of the world's poorest countries, which has been plagued by coups and political instability for decades.

President Vieira first came to power on the back of a military coup in 1980, while he was head of the armed forces.

He was toppled in 1999 but returned to win the presidency as an independent in 2005.

Guinea-Bissau has come under international criticism for failing to stop drug trafficking. The country is a major hub for Latin American cocaine en route to European markets. (dpa)