NIGERIA: On the eve of a visit by President Bush, Nigeria geared up yesterday to provide troops for a peacekeeping force to Liberia which the United States is under intense pressure to join.
Nigeria's army said it was ready to send two battalions after its senate conditionally approved some 2,000 soldiers for Liberia, which has been torn by nearly 14 years of civil war.
The troubled state will be one of the main talking points on Mr Bush's visit to oil-rich Nigeria, the last stop on his five-nation trip around the continent.
Mr Bush has said the United States will play a role in bringing peace to Liberia, but has not yet decided whether it will send US forces to the country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.
The Abuja stop will also focus on Nigeria's status as a major supplier of crude oil to the US, a strategic role Washington expects will grow because of possible risks to traditional supplies from the Gulf and Middle East.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will welcome Mr Bush's visit as a show of support for his government, which has faced increased pressure from political opponents who cried fraud over his re-election earlier this year.
Mr Obasanjo has faced growing unrest from an impoverished domestic population, including a general strike over fuel prices that ended on Tuesday.
A swift dispatch of Nigerian troops could help get Liberian President Charles Taylor into exile.
Mr Taylor, widely blamed for years of conflict at home and in neighbouring countries, has agreed to heed Mr Bush's demand to stand down, accepting a Nigerian offer of asylum.
Mr Taylor, who controls barely a third of his country and has been indicted for war crimes, warns that his exit would unleash chaos unless an international force is already on the ground.
US military experts are assessing the situation in Liberia before Mr Bush makes any commitment of troops, and officials in Abuja say Nigerian involvement is a major factor in any US decision.
"I think the force should be there within two weeks," Nigerian army spokesman Col Emeka Onwuamaegbu said.
Mr Obasanjo's senior aide, Mr Stanley Macebuh, said the two presidents would discuss what role the United Nations should play in any Liberian mission.
Nigeria is also likely to want compensation for its Liberian peacekeeping role between 1990 and 1997. At the height of the conflict, Nigeria had some 10,000 troops there, with huge financial costs and hundreds of troops killed. - (Reuters)