US forces prepare for Liberian mission

A US military team took a closer look at Liberia’s battered capital ahead of a decision on whether to send troops in a peacekeeping force.

A group of experts, some dressed in military fatigues, toured the main airport outside Monrovia and were due to visit the city's port later. Other members of the team beavered away at a report to be presented to US authorities.

US President George W Bush, who is touring Africa, is expected to decide within days on whether American troops should join a regional force, already in the works.

Bush is under intense international pressure to send troops to help over three million people in the West African country which was founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.

But Washington is wary after the humiliating and bloody retreat of US forces from Somalia 10 years ago. The US army is already stretched with complex and costly operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Liberia has less strategic importance.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday the US role in Liberia would be "very limited in duration and scope" and mainly concerned with supporting regional troops.

Liberia has been crippled by 14 years of almost non-stop war. The latest chapter in the conflict pits rebels holding nearly two-thirds of the country against President Charles Taylor, an international pariah now indicted for war crimes.

Bush is due to meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Washington on Monday. Mr Annan has been an outspoken advocate of US involvement, saying it would avert a humanitarian disaster.

Embattled Taylor has promised to step down as soon as international peacekeepers are on the ground, warning of chaos if there is a power vacuum.

Nigeria has said West Africa could quickly deploy a force of between 1,000 to 1,500 troops. A senior source at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said the initial force would likely be composed of 1,150 soldiers 750 Nigerians, 250 Ghanaians and 150 Malians.

A US team in Ghana will meet through the weekend with West African military officers to assess what will be required to get the regional force to Monrovia and to support them. Many Liberians think only US troops will be able to impose control over the drugged-up fighters on both sides. During a civil war which cost 200,000 lives in the 1990s, a Nigerian-led force failed to stop the bloodshed.

Nigeria has said it is ready to field two battalions. President Olusegun Obasanjo, who meets Mr Bush this weekend, warned rebels they would take on the force "at their peril".

Taylor, who has been indicted for war crimes by an international court, has accepted an offer of asylum from Nigeria. Nigeria has no treaty under which Taylor could be extradited to face the war crimes court in Sierra Leone, where his former rebel allies mutilated, raped and slaughtered for a decade.