The United States introduced a UN resolution today that would authorize a multinational force for Liberia, thereby preparing the ground for any future US deployment in the West African country.
The measure, given to the 15-member UN Security Council, is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter that allows the use of force in the country's bloody civil war. It would grant authority for a multinational force "to secure the environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance."
The resolution would also approve an urgent request from UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan for the United Nations to underwrite some of the costs for Nigerian troops, the first contingents expected in Liberia from the regional Economic Community of West Africa States, or ECOWAS.
Meanwhile residents in Liberia's second city said today that fierce fighting between rebels and President Charles Taylor's forces had left dozens of bodies in the streets as West Africa inched closer to deploying troops.
With Liberia's two biggest cities now gripped by fighting, a long-awaited multinational reconnaissance mission left Ghana today en route to Monrovia where it is due to study the logistics of deploying regional peacekeepers.
It was not immediately clear if the team was going directly to the Liberian capital or first stopping in Sierra Leone. Rebels seized the strategic port and second city of Buchanan on Monday, tightening the noose around Taylor, a former warlord who is battling with another rebel faction in the capital.
"There are bodies all over the place. Dozens of people have been killed," said one Buchanan resident by telephone. "The wounded are on the streets and there is no way to treat them."
Another resident said the dead were being carted away in wheelbarrows when it was safe to retrieve them.
The reports revealed a city sinking into the kind of horror that has gripped the capital Monrovia, where see-saw battles around key bridges have raged for 12 days with hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire.
The United States repeated today its demand that Liberian President Charles Taylor leave office as part of a peace plan backed by the United Nations and Liberia's West African neighbors.
"Charles Taylor must go, cease-fire must be in place, and we will be there to help ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States)," President George W. Bush told a news conference at the White House.
West African pledges to send in peacekeepers have been hobbled by haggling over who should pay and concerns about the fighting on the ground.
About 1,500 Nigerian soldiers are on standby to enter Monrovia's streets but regional leaders want a truce first. In Monrovia today, heavy gunfire echoed around a key bridge, and at least one person was killed by mortar rounds despite the latest quickly-shattered rebel truce, declared yesterday.
During a period of relative calm in the city centre, people crept out of their hiding places and dashed to the market, hunting desperately for scarce food.
"The food situation is rough. Right now we have no food at all, people are not eating," said aid worker Mr Charles Grice.