Liberian leader asks US for help

Liberia's president offered his rebel foes an olive branch and sought US help to maintain a fragile ceasefire as the man who helped shape the fortunes of the shattered West African nation began a life in exile.

Moses Blah, who until Monday was outgoing president Charles Taylor's deputy, wasted no time in offering the vacant vice-president's job to rebels who hold about three-quarters of the country. He urged the US to intervene swiftly.

"My message to President Bush is: please President Bush come and save Liberia ... please save us from this nightmare, we are suffering, we are dying," he said in an interview with CNN, calling on Marines on a US task force off the coast to come ashore.

US of State Colin Powell said in Washington the US commander would go ashore in the next day or so to see how his force could help West African peacekeepers open a rebel-held port in the capital Monrovia and release aid needed to stave off a humanitarian crisis.

"We hope that all of the parties to this conflict will now recognize that it is time for the conflict to end," he said, adding: "We will be working hard to fix the cease-fire in place."

But much is likely to depend on how the rebels respond to Blah's overtures.

Taylor, a warlord who invaded in 1989, fought a brutal civil war and finally won power in a 1997 presidential election, stepped down on Monday.

Hemmed by rebels and UN sanctions and wanted by a UN-backed war crimes court in neighbouring Sierra Leone, he had little option.

Describing as a "sacrificial lamb", he flew into exile in Nigeria under pressure from a world which hopes his departure will speed an end to violence that has racked West Africa for nearly 14 years.

The rebels, who mistrust Taylor's old ally from the civil war of the 1990s, have already said the October date set by West African leaders for Blah to hand over to an interim president is too long.

Blah CNN he had asked the rebels to lay down their arms and join him for talks in the capital.

"I'm inviting [the rebels] even now ... to come to Monrovia and I'm giving the post of the vice president to the rebels ... to come and join a government to help bring peace to Liberia," he said.

Hundreds thousands of traumatized civilians fled the latest wave of violence that killed 2,000 people in the country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century as a haven of liberty.

The rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy had promised to withdraw from the port in Monrovia and hand over to Nigerian peacekeepers once Taylor had gone.

Contacts between US officials and rebels were expected yesterday.

Powell in Washington he did not expect a significant number of US troops to help open the port.

"If the situation remains calm, as it has been for the last few hours, all this should be done in a rather open and peaceful way," he said. "If the ceasefire remains in place I would not expect any large commitment of US forces."