Crowds welcome Bangladeshi soldiers to Monrovia

Waving lined the roads on Saturday to welcome 760 blue-helmeted Bangladeshi soldiers -- the first UN troops in Liberia from outside Africa -- who moved into Monrovia ahead of tomorrow's swearing-in of an interim power-sharing government.

"God is really answering our prayers," said Martha James, a roadside vendor who was part of Saturday's throng. "We welcome the troops wholeheartedly."

The troops, the vanguard of 3,000 soldiers promised by Bangladesh, waved back at the crowds behind a blue banner that declared: "We bring peace to Liberia."

The UN Security Council has promised up to 15,000 troops for Liberia, taking over from a West African-led force that helped end June-July attacks on the capital by rebels battling to rout former President Charles Taylor.

Also on Saturday, UN peacekeepers manned roadblocks to enforce a weapons ban in Liberia's war-torn capital, bringing traffic to a standstill, with motorists and pedestrians lining up single-file to be searched.

The sweep came 10 days after a gunfight between rebel and government forces with mortars and automatic weapons killed at least three people in a crowded commercial district.

It was the most serious clash of a more than two-month cease-fire in the capital.

Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony of a transitional government is part of the Aug. 18 peace deal that followed Taylor's resignation and exile.

The new government's leader, Gyude Bryant, has called disarmament of Liberia's ill-disciplined fighters, many of them children, the first priority of his two-year administration after 14 years of bloodletting.

Bryant, a businessman, is to take over from Taylor's personally chosen successor, former vice president Moses Blah, in an interim government that excludes both rebel and government leaders from the very top positions.

Delegates the government and the two rebel groups hold lower positions in the temporary government, meant to lead the country into elections in 2005.

Lawmakers the Taylor-dominated House of Representatives declared on Saturday that they would not yield their seats to the interim government until they received 25 months' unpaid salary.

"Until we get the money, we will not consider ourselves dissolved," said James Mono, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee.

Legislators had been due to cede office today as part of the transition.