VOA News
23 Jul 2003, 14:14 UTC
Gunfire and sporadic shelling continue for a fifth day in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, despite a call for a cease-fire.
Fighting persisted Wednesday while a published report said Liberian President Charles Taylor is planning to step down within 10 days.
The New York Times quotes Mr. Taylor as saying in a telephone interview that he has decided to hand power to the speaker of Liberia's House of Representatives. The newspaper quotes Mr. Taylor as saying he intends to make a formal announcement soon.
Meanwhile, a cease-fire has become a key requirement for any deployment of peacekeepers to the war-torn country that was founded in the mid-1800s by freed American slaves.
West African defense ministers met in Senegal Tuesday to decide on the composition, deployment schedule and support needs for a vanguard contingent - possibly a mechanized batallion of about 1,000 Nigerian infantrymen who belong to a United Nations force in Sierra Leone. But regional leaders have made clear that soldiers will not be dispatched to Liberia until there is peace to keep.
Fighting was heaviest Wednesday around one of three strategic bridges leading westward from the rebel-controlled port district into Monrovia's center. Government troops have managed to rebuff rebel advances on the other two bridges.
Leaders of the main rebel group LURD, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, say they ordered a cease-fire Sunday, but it will take time for the news to reach the fighters.
The government wants the rebels to pull back to positions they held June seventeenth when the two sides agreed to a truce, but LURD has indicated it has no intention of retreating.
The embattled Liberian president announced more than a month ago that he would leave the West African country, after foreign peacekeepers arrived.
In the interview with the New York Times, he did not respond to a question about whether the arrival of peacekeepers was still a condition for his departure.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
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