Liberian authorities have agreed to pull government forces from a main road connecting the newly calm capital Monrovia with the country’s volatile interior, paving the way for African peacekeepers’ first countryside deployment a day later, the defence minister said today.

CIVILIANS fleeing by the thousands appealed yesterday for rescue, as a first trip into the countryside showed Liberia's nightmare was far from over with families clutching bone-thin babies speaking of nightly gunfire and barrages despite a week-old peace deal.

LIBERIA'S rebels have pushed down a major highway towards the capital Monrovia, aid workers said yesterday as thousands of civilians fled the latest clashes, casting doubt on an increasingly rocky peace deal.