West Africa Correspondent Mark Doyle: "Freetown is probably not in danger."

More troops have been flown in from from Nigeria, which provides the bulk of the West African intervention force, and from Ghana. Soldiers from Mali and Gambia are also expected.

The intervention force admitted on Monday that its troops had been forced to withdraw from the key northern town of Makeni.

Skirmishes were reported on Tuesday in hills around the capital, Freetown, but the BBC West Africa correspondent, who is in Freetown, says the West African troops are firmly in control there.

The rebels are remnants of a military junta overthrown earlier this year by a Nigerian-led force which re-instated the elected government.

Request for troops

The additional troops were requested on Monday at the end of a regional summit in Abidjan by Lansana Kouyate, general secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

Nigeria, which already provides the bulk of the 10,000 strong West African coalition army known at Ecomog, has sent an additional 1,000 soldiers.

An unnamed senior Ghanaian defence ministry official said: "We have sent some men and officers to help beef up what is already on the ground."

Some 500 soldiers from Mali and Gambia are also expected within days, and other West African nations have also pledged troops.

Defection fears

Meanwhile, officials from the intervention force say they have had to move Sierra Leoneon soldiers from barracks in Lungi, north of Freetown, following reports by local residents that they had been fighting with the rebels.

The soldiers were being kept in Lungi as part of a demobilisation programme launched after the overthrow of the military junta.