Liberian truce under threat

This pro-government fighter believes a woman's wig will protect him

The Liberian Government and rebel groups have accused each other of breaking a ceasefire, first agreed last month.

Defence Minister Daniel Chea told Reuters news agency that his forces had been attacked in three places around the country.

However rebels, who control some two-thirds of Liberia, say they were attacked first. Both sides say they are not returning to war.

The United States has not yet decided whether to send troops to lead a peacekeeping force, as requested by West African leaders and the United Nations.

They want to draw us into fighting but we will not allow ourselves to be drawn in Defence Minister Daniel Chea

President Charles Taylor has said he will step down but only after the peace force arrives.

The rebels insist that he must leave before any peacekeepers are deployed.

While a tenuous peace has held for more than two weeks in the capital, Monrovia, 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.

High alert

Mr Chea said the army had been attacked in Greenville in the south-east, Kwendine in the north and in upper Bomi County, north-west of the capital Monrovia.

"They want to draw us into fighting but we will not allow ourselves to be drawn in," he said, accusing rebels of trying to grab territory ahead of the arrival of a team of international monitors meant to map the ceasefire line.

On Sunday, Liberia's deputy chief of staff General Benjamin Yeaten said that loyalist forces had been put on "maximum alert" in case of a new rebel offensive on Monrovia.

A spokesman for the Model rebels, General Boi Bleeju Boi, who is attending peace talks in Ghana, said Mr Taylor's forces had attacked his fighters repeatedly over the past few days.

Liberians are desperate for an end to over a decade of conflict

In pictures

"I know that Charles Taylor has broken the ceasefire and attacked my positions...We consider it a violation of the ceasefire but we have been very calm," he said.

Mr Taylor - who is wanted by a UN-backed tribunal for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone - has accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria.

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.

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