Delegates from Liberia's warring factions say they have picked a Monrovian businessman to try and guide the country out of a generation of strife and towards elections in two years.
Mr Gyude Bryant is widely seen as the most politically neutral of three candidates who were shortlisted. Delegates from rebel factions and the government said West African mediators would announce his appointment later.
They said Mr Bryant (54) had been picked after two rounds of voting on a second day of talks in Ghana. "He was the one that was least offensive to either side," one of the delegates told journalists.
Liberia's interim leader is due to take over in October from President Moses Blah, who has been acting as a caretaker since pariah leader Charles Taylor flew into exile in Nigeria last week under heavy international pressure.
The aim of the interim government is to put an end to nearly 14 years of violence and then organise elections in 2005.
Mr Bryant, of the Liberia Action Party, is regarded as a canny politician capable of building consensus. He is a leading figure in the Episcopal Church, one of Liberia's main religious denominations.
Other candidates for interim leader were former UN official and vigorous Taylor opponent Ms Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr Rudolph Sherman, who heads a coalition of parties regarded as broadly sympathetic to Taylor.