Britain plans to help set up a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission in Sierra Leone.

The minister for African affairs, Peter Hain, said the UK would give £250,000 ($400,000) to its former colony for the project.

Tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans suffered mutilation and rape during the decade-long civil war.

Many people had limbs hacked off by the rebels as a warning not to support the elected government.

The youngest victim was a two-month-old baby, who had his foot chopped off by the rebels.

A blanket amnesty was granted to war criminals as part of last July's peace agreement, a provision of the ceasefire that the UK supported.

Prospects for peace

Mr Hain, who was in the capital Freetown for the announcement about the truth commission, said that although the agreement was far from perfect, it opened the way to peace.

"I'm not pretending that this is an agreement - amnesty is included - in which we could all be incredibly proud.

"This is an agreement which has allowed Sierra Leone to move from this bestial set of years of atrocities towards a future in which there can be peace and stability."

The BBC's West Africa correspondent, Mark Doyle, said Sierra Leoneans were divided on the issue.

While some supported the amnesty in the interests of peace, others believed that the UK operated double standards by pursuing war criminals in European conflicts, while telling African victims that they have to forgive, if not forget.