US: President George Bush has decided to sent 500 to 1,000 US troops to Liberia in a peace-keeping role, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor.
An announcement of the deployment is expected today, White House officials said.
The decision was finalised by the national security council yesterday morning. It comes in response to strong international pressure on the US to help restore stability to a country with historically close ties.
Mr Bush, who is making a five-day visit to Africa next week, has been asked by West African leaders to send up to 2,000 troops to lead a peace force that would separate Liberia's rebels and the soldiers of president Charles Taylor.
The US President issued a blunt demand to Mr Taylor to leave the West African country. "In order for there to be peace and stability in Liberia, Charles Taylor needs - to leave - now," he told reporters.
Mr Bush said the US was exploring all options to help end a 14-year civil war and to restore peace and stability. US officials were last night reported to be in urgent consultations through the United Nations with other African countries over the composition of a peace-keeping force.
Washington has made three conditions for deploying peace-keeping troops: that Mr Taylor cede power as he has promised, that he surrender on a war crimes indictment from a UN special court, and that the two sides consolidate their cease-fire.
The President's decision to deploy US forces to the war-ravaged West Africa nation marks the third military intervention by Mr Bush in another country after Afghanistan and Iraq.
US troops are thinly stretched around the world and the Pentagon is evaluating troops levels in Iraq where the US is meeting resistance. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday that the US governor in Iraq Mr Paul Bremner had asked the Pentagon for more troops.
Forty US Marines are on standby at a naval base at Rota, Spain, to move quickly to the Liberian capital Monrovia to secure the US mission there before peacekeepers arrive.
"The political instability is such that people are panicking," Mr Bush said.
"But the good news is there's a cease-fire in place now." The US and Liberia have ties going back to 1822, when President James Monroe sent troops to establish a nation for the first freed American slaves.
Descendants of former slaves form a minority in the 3 million population but have been prominent in governing the country.
Mr Taylor was elected president in 1997 after a prolonged civil war but had to seek safety in the US embassy later that year in fighting that followed his attempt to arrest opposition leader Roosevelt Johnson.
After a three-year campaign to drive out Mr Taylor, the capital has seen a full scale battle for control with hundreds of thousands of refugees trapped between the rebels and the Atlantic during a four day siege of the city.