Taylor presses for US role

Mr Taylor was speaking to a rally of supporters

Liberian President Charles Taylor has criticised President Bush for failing to offer anything of substance to Liberia.

At a rally in the capital Monrovia on Saturday, the embattled Liberian leader said he had wanted to hear that the United States would be sending troops to his country.

President Bush has repeatedly called on the Liberian leader to stand down.

However Mr Taylor said that asking him to leave the presidency and his country and then failing to do any good for Liberia, would be a great injustice to the Liberian people.

You are not going to use [Liberia] as a photo-opportunity President Charles Taylor

During a visit to Africa, which ended on Saturday, Mr Bush said the US would play what he described as an active role in Liberia.

However he said he had not yet decided whether to send in American troops.

US military advisers are in Liberia to gauge security conditions and humanitarian needs.

'Sacrificial lamb'

Mr Taylor - who is wanted by a UN-backed tribunal for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone - repeated that he would step down and make himself a "sacrificial lamb".

However he has said he will not step down until peacekeepers are deployed.

The main rebel group - Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) - has warned it will confront any international peacekeeping force that is deployed in the country before President Taylor steps down.

Rebels are on the outskirts of the capital

They said international peacekeepers would strengthen Mr Taylor's ability to hang on to power.

"Any troops deployed before the departure of Taylor must be prepared for a firefight," a Lurd statement said on Friday.

While a tenuous peace has held for more than two weeks, the UN food agency has warned that hundreds of thousands of displaced Liberians in camps outside the capital continue to be cut off from aid and risk starvation.

The departure of Mr Taylor - who has accepted an offer of temporary asylum in Nigeria - is seen by the US as a step to restore peace to a country which has suffered more than a decade of civil war.