New fighting has broken out in Liberia today a day after former President Charles Taylor flew into exile.
Liberia's government and a rebel faction called Model accused each other of starting the latest violence as the rebels made a big advance. Officials said they were still 30 miles from the capital's international airport.
Another rebel faction, holding the port that is key to getting aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees, said clearly for the first time that they wanted to head an interim administration now that Taylor was gone.
The fear of many Liberians has long been a vicious three-way struggle for power between loyalist militias and the tribe-based rebel factions, remnants of a civil war that killed 200,000 people in the 1990s.
Waiting off the coast to try to bolster peace efforts and bring in aid are three US warships with 2,300 marines aboard, but Washington has not said it will commit ground troops.
Liberia's Defence Minister, Mr Daniel Chea, said Nigerian peacekeepers from a regional force had headed up towards the rebels to persuade them to stop their advance towards Monrovia.
"There is no reason for this. Taylor has left, that's what they wanted. Their agenda just seems to be total annihilation of the Liberian people. . . . If their whole desire is to kill Liberians, we can just line some up," he said.
A spokesman for the Model rebel faction blamed the government loyalists and said: "I do not agree that the war is over. The government elements who have been causing trouble are still in place, they are attacking us".