LIBERIA: Mediators piled pressure on Liberian President Charles Taylor and rebel factions yesterday to agree to a ceasefire and avert a bloody showdown for the capital Monrovia.
The sound of gunfire reverberated briefly through the battered coastal city yesterday morning, which has been under rebel attack for most of the past week, but the fighting appeared to have subsided in the afternoon.
West African mediators on a regional diplomatic shuttle were due to fly to Monrovia from Guinea later yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to broker a truce.
The rebels said they had given orders to their fighters to hold their positions.
With a rebel deadline for Mr Taylor to step down expiring tomorrow, time for a peaceful solution was running out.
Indicted by a UN-backed war crimes court, the President has few options to flee abroad.
The UN Security Council called on the warring sides on Monday to cease all hostilities and give peace talks in Ghana a chance to succeed. Monrovia's population has already been swelled by tens of thousands of terrified refugees, many of whom are now huddling at the main soccer stadium with little food or drinking water.