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AKOSOMBO, Ghana: Mediators seeking to end one of West Africa's most destabilizing conflicts prepared yesterday to lead Liberia's warring parties through full-blown peace talks after wringing a ceasefire pledge from them.

After a day of haggling, mediators said rebels and representatives of President Charles Taylor had agreed to sign a ceasefire today, a move that would clear the way for peace talks aimed at ending 14 years of almost non-stop war.

"I hope on Monday we will sign. We gave them the draft. We have cleared the grey areas and we will sign on Monday," chief mediator Abdulsalami Abubakar said on Saturday at Ghana's lakeside resort of Akosombo.

A ceasefire deal would, at the very least, offer a glimmer of hope to hundreds of thousands of terrified Liberians who had packed the capital Monrovia last week after rebels moved to within five kilometres of the city centre. At least 300 civilians and fighters were killed.

Two rebel groups - the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and a newer rebel group called Model - are fighting to oust Taylor, who is under intense international pressure to step down after his indictment for war crimes related to Sierra Leone's civil war.

Taylor has said he is willing to step aside at the end of his presidential term in January 2004 if it would bring peace to his country, but he wants the indictment lifted.

If the ceasefire is indeed signed, mediators hope it will provide a window during which issues such as the creation of a transitional government and the possible deployment of peace keepers could be addressed.

LURD delegates at the talks have called for a US-led Western force to be deployed in a nation now crippled by conflict.

But a ceasefire might not necessarily ensure peace.

Dozens of truces have been signed and broken during Liberia's seven-year civil war, which has claimed 200,000 lives. Many of the same people are involved in this latest conflict.

If a ceasefire is signed today, mediators will have to get down to the nitty-gritty of handing out jobs in a transitional administration.

"Immediately we will start political negotiations and will mobilize resources to deploy a peace-keeping force," LURD spokesman Kabineh Ja'neh said on Saturday.

But a key question will be what happens to Taylor.

A UN-backed court that indicted him insists he must face justice. But many West African diplomats and officials say this is unimaginable. His aides say he will never leave Liberia, while rebels insist he will have to quit the country.

LURD launched its rebellion in 2000 and, with Model, now holds two-thirds of Liberia.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 06/16/2003 page1)