LIBERIA: Liberia's government and rebels signed a peace deal last night to set up a new administration designed to end 14 years of brutal chaos in the West African country and prepare for elections in 2005.
A week after president Charles Taylor went into exile, his old allies and former foes agreed in the name of peace to share power with other political parties from October and to sacrifice their own claims to ruling Liberia.
But as rebel leaders and a government representative signed the agreement in Ghana, accusations flew of fighting near the war-ruined Liberian capital Monrovia where US-backed West African peacekeepers have been deployed.
A further blow to long-term peace came as President George Bush announced US troops would be out of Liberia by October 1st.
Under the peace deal, President Moses Blah will step down in October for the chairman of the interim government. The chairman, who will not come from any of the warring factions, is expected to be picked this week. The rebels, President Blah's government, opposition parties and civil society groups will share jobs in the cabinet and parliament.
Under hefty foreign pressure, the main Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel group dropped its demand for the number two post in the new government.
Defence Minister Mr Daniel Chea accused LURD and the other rebel faction, known as Model, of fighting right up to the signing of the deal and said people had been killed and homes burned at villages north and southeast of the capital.
"This is a form of warfare and will make reconciliation very difficult," Mr Chea said. There was no immediate rebel comment.
Liberians elected Taylor in 1997, hoping for peace after a first round of civil war in the 1990s in which 200,000 people were killed.
But recovery had not even taken root when old foes emerged from the bush to fight him.
More than 1,000 Nigerian-led peacekeepers from the region, backed by US Marines, are now securing Liberia's coastal capital, where about 2,000 people were killed in the most recent bout of street fighting.
On Sunday night, the peacekeepers pushed to the Po River, 15 km west of Monrovia.
Aid organisations are trying to help hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the city and replenish stores emptied in an orgy of looting.
But efforts took a blow yesterday with news that an aid ship chartered by US-based World Vision had sunk off neighbouring Sierra Leone with $86,000 in relief supplies aboard, including blankets and mats. - (Reuters)