UN chief, France want multinational force to be sent to Liberia

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called yesterday for a multinational force to be sent to Liberia urgently to halt fighting between government and rebel forces that has killed hundreds. France joined calls for a foreign force to intervene in Liberia and said it was in talks with the United States on how to help the war-ruined West African country quickly.

Annan, visiting Geneva, issued his call in a letter to the UN Security Council, which he said should meet immediately to agree on intervention because further delay would only lead to further suffering for ordinary Liberians.

"Our collective interest and our common humanity demand urgent and decisive action from the Security Council. We cannot be oblivious to the warning signs of an imminent possible catastrophe," Annan's letter said. In a clear reference to the United States, which has so far declined to act in a country with which it has close ties, Annan said the force should be "under the lead of a (UN) member state".

This week's sudden grab by Liberian rebels for the capital Monrovia left hundreds of people dead before President Charles Taylor's forces battled the insurgents back beyond the limits of the steamy coastal city.

Former warlord Taylor remains under intense pressure, with two rebel factions controlling 60 per cent of Liberia, an international court after him for war crimes in Sierra Leone and US President George W. Bush urging him to step down.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the most important thing was to bring help as soon as possible. France has sent troops to neighbouring Ivory Coast to help end a civil war entwined with Liberia's own.

"We need an international intervention in Liberia now. We're in contact with the US to see what we can do to manage this emergency situation," Villepin told reporters on a visit to Ghana, where Liberian peace talks were adjourned on Friday. We'll have some results in the coming hours. A dynamic process has started."

Most eyes in Liberia turn to the United States for help because of its historical links with a country founded more than 150 years ago by freed slaves trying to establish a haven of liberty. Bands of marchers, many driven from their homes by fighting, headed for the US embassy for a third day chanting "We want peace, no more war. Do they want all of us to die? They are the people we look up to. We think the Americans must help us," said Rita Younger, one of those heading for the US embassy.

Taylor's commanders said they would silence their guns on Friday after the rebels ordered a ceasefire, but military sources said they kept up a search in Monrovia yesterday for any rebels cut off in the retreat. Elsewhere, people emerged to survey the damage and salvage what they could from looted stores. Some traders moved back onto the streets with peppers and bunches of edible leaves.

The fighting in Monrovia was the worst since the 1990s, when corpses lay unburied as tribal factions vied for control. Liberia has known little but violence for nearly 14 years. Negotiations in Ghana were adjourned for a week on Friday, although both sides said they were committed to talks they began after a ceasefire last week that never really took hold.

But Liberians have little faith that any of their leaders can bring the peace they crave.

Even Taylor asked for American assistance on Friday, despite Bush's demand a day earlier that he step down to end bloodshed that has also spread violence to all Liberia's neighbours - Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Guinea. Britain has also said it would like to see the United States lead a multinational force into Liberia, but officials in Washington have so far ruled out sending peacekeepers.

Regional diplomats say there is talk that Nigeria might send soldiers to Liberia, as it did during the civil war in the 1990s.