STORY CANNOT BE CONFIRMED -- ON MARK DOYLE'S ADVICE A spokesman for the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, says ECOMOG forces backed by Nigerian warplanes have driven rebels from the town of Port Loko, some fifty kilometres northeast of the capital, Freetown.

The spokesman said the town was taken yesterday Thursday.

Local reports said hundreds of rebels attacked Port Loko on Wednesday, seizing part of the town, while ECOMOG forces held another section.

The Sierra Leone information minister, Julius Spencer, said Port Loko had been retaken with the help of local militia.

He said the rebels were still holding the town of Lunsar, east of Port Loko.