* Guinea election body meets to decide fate of vote
* Former poll organiser jailed for election fraud
By Saliou Samb CONAKRY, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Guinean officials will decide on Friday whether to delay a troubled presidential run-off due on Oct. 24, poll organisers said, as the United States warned the West African country risked missing an opportunity for progress.
Meanwhile, the former election commission chief, who was replaced this week by a Malian official due to a row over alleged bias, was sentenced to a year in jail for election fraud, underlining tensions in the build-up to the vote in the world's No. 1 bauxite exporting country.
The vote would be Guinea's first free election since independence from France in 1958 and would close the book on more than a year of military rule since a coup in December 2008.
New commission chief Siaka Toumany Sangare said on Thursday it would be hard to stage a presidential run-off on Sunday as planned, citing a "deplorable" lack of preparation that would yield a disputed outcome. [ID:LDE69K2JK]
"One way or another, a decision (on a possible delay) will be made today," Foumba Kourouma, a senior member of the election commission, known as CENI, told Reuters on Friday.
Election officials were holding meetings on Friday afternoon to discuss voting preparations, ahead of the expected decision.
A first round of voting on June 27 passed relatively smoothly, despite fears of violence in a nation that has been under military rule since a 2008 coup.
FEUDING
But subsequent rows over vote-rigging and impartiality of election officials have marred the preparations for a run-off between former prime minister Cellou Dallein Diallo and veteran opposition leader Alpha Conde.
The run-off has been repeatedly delayed and the foreign minister of former colonial power France suggested on Thursday a delay of one week.
Louceny Camara, the former head of the election commission, was stripped of his post earlier this week after Diallo accused him of bias, and he was sentenced by a court on Friday to a year in prison, two witnesses said.
Karifa Diaby Gassama, a lawyer and political analyst, said Camara's jailing could be overturned in a court, but warned the move could further disrupt the election process by prompting purges in the election panel of people suspected of favouritism.
"We need to have a basic principle of not keeping anyone in the (commission) who has any doubts hanging over them," he said.
The U.S. embassy in Guinea issued a statement on Friday warning Guineans of the dangers of a winner-takes-all attitude and said Guineans who had fought together for democracy risked blowing an opportunity for progress.
"Instead of friendly competition between party supporters, I hear virulent accusations and see youth called to go and clash on the streets," the statement said. "I call on you not to waste this opportunity: unite as Guineans so that the elections are successful, and a first step towards a better future."
(Reporting by Saliou Samb; writing by David Lewis; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Mark Heinrich)
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