DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea pledged yesterday to monitor closely the situation in Liberia where a new battalion of 430 Irish troops are set to join a United Nations mission at the end of the month.

The battle to modernise the Defence Forces will continue this year with the delivery of new armoured personnel carriers and training aircraft, its chief of staff is expected to say today.

The first contingent of Irish troops has returned home from Liberia after serving on a UN peacekeeping mission in the war-torn African country.

About 130 Irish peacekeeping troops will be leaving Dublin tonight for the war-torn Liberian capital Monrovia.

Declaring it “absolutely essential” to speed up the deployment of an international force to Liberia, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has offered to bring in a Nigerian battalion and spelled out plans to quickly send reinforcements.

The European Union urged Liberia’s warring rivals today to sign up to a lasting ceasefire and called on rebels to lift their nine day siege of Monrovia to allow food and aid into the capital.

LIBERIAN rebels rejected US calls yesterday to withdraw immediately from the capital Monrovia and said amid fresh heavy fighting that they would stay until foreign peacekeepers arrived.

LIBERIAN rebels engaged in an all-out battle for the country’s war-torn capital said yesterday they have ordered their troops to stop fighting.

US President George W Bush yesterday pledged to work with the United Nations and African states to maintain a fragile ceasefire in Liberia, but said no decision had been made yet on sending US peacekeepers.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent deployment of an international force for Liberia, warning of a “humanitarian tragedy” in a war-ruined capital where fighting this week killed hundreds of trapped civilians.

WEARY and frightened villagers straggling from the bush in western Ivory Coast tell of dozens of killings and wanton abuses after a surge of fighting that has soured hopes of peace.