Deploy troops then I'll go, says Taylor

LIBERIA'S besieged President Charles Taylor yesterday said he would step down, but only after an international peacekeeping force is deployed to his west African nation, and he said the United States should send troops.

The comments came after US President George W Bush who is considering whether to send peacekeepers to Liberia said Taylor's removal from power was a condition for any progress in the war-torn nation.

But Taylor who backed off past promises to step down even as rebels bore down on Monrovia trying to remove him earlier this month insisted peacekeepers must deploy before he would go.