BBC News Online: World: Africa

Confusion over UK captives

But a UN commander has told the BBC he didn't know what the the troops were doing when they were taken hostage with their Sierra Leonean liaison officer by the rebel West Side Boys.

The hostage negotiators are hoping for more direct contacts with the kidnappers and the captured Royal Irish Regiment soldiers later on Wednesday.

A group of relatives of the West Side Boys has issued an appeal for the soldiers' release.

Johnny Paul Koroma, a former coup leader, who is now a member of the Sierra Leonean Government, said the delegation was preparing to go to the bush to relay the message directly.

The West Side Boys initially demanded food, medicine and the release from jail of one of their leaders - known as General Papa or Bomb Blast - in return for the troops' freedom.

Discrepencies

The British military spokesman said the discrepencies in the accounts of how the 11 were captured were a matter of timing.

West Africa correspondent Mark Doyle says it remains unclear as to why five days after the kidnappings the British army says that their troops had reached Masiaka, when the UN says they did not.

The deputy commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone, Nigeria's General Mohammed Garba, challenged the British position saying the captured soldiers had been travelling in a dangerous rebel area without telling the UN what they were doing.

About 400 British troops are in Sierra Leone to train a new army.