U.S. Marine team lands in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia -- A team of U.S. Marines landed in Monrovia on Wednesday, flying in on olive-green helicopters that passed almost unnoticed over a ruined city where people are preoccupied with searching for food after weeks of fighting between government and rebel troops.

The seven Americans came to coordinate U.S. logistical support for a steadily building peacekeeping force of West African soldiers at the airport 30 miles from the capital. The force's Nigerian commander said he would have enough troops by today to send some into Monrovia itself.

The U.S. team flew in from a three-ship Navy group carrying 2,000 Marines off Liberia. But President Bush said Wednesday that no larger American force will go ashore until warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor leaves the country.

Repeating a U.S. demand, Bush declared during his vacation in Crawford, Texas, "We would like Taylor out."

Nigerian officials said the Liberian leader was talking of leaving Aug. 16 or 17, and was holding out for a full airport sendoff with pomp and ceremony following his promised resignation Monday.

"An elected president can't leave in a hurry," said Taylor's defense minister, Daniel Chea.

But the Nigerian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they and others were trying to speed Taylor's exit.

Taylor, a Libyan-trained former guerrilla fighter blamed for 14 years of conflict here, is pinned up in central Monrovia after a two-month rebel siege.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed, and hunger and sickness are widespread among the 1.3 million residents and refugees crowding the capital.

In the government-held part of the city, market stalls offered little more than potato greens and chili peppers. Rice, the staple food, was nowhere to be found.

Thousands of civilians streamed out of Monrovia's rebel-held port carrying bags of rice on their heads. Rebels had commandeered shipping containers there and gave out the rice, people said.

"They gave me two persons' share because I helped them carry," said Prince Maxwell, a 22-year-old student.

The U.S. helicopters carrying the Marine liaison team roared in out of overcast skies but stirred little notice. A few dozen children on the rocky beach waved and pointed.

It was good the Americans had come, but not good enough, many adults said.

"It's too slow and too little," said Thomas Koko, a hotel laundry worker. "People are starving. We can't even see our families on the other side. We need peacekeepers in the port, in our city, now."

After weeks of promises from neighboring countries to provide troops to separate the combatants, peacekeepers began flying into the airport outside the city on Monday. By Wednesday, 500 soldiers with five armored personnel carriers were at the base.

The force's commander, Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo of Nigeria, said the force would have sufficient strength today for him to send some soldiers into Monrovia itself.

The United Nations, European and African countries have wanted Washington to take the lead in restoring peace to Liberia, which was founded by freed American slaves, with U.S. government encouragement, in the 19th century.

But Bush has said West Africans and the United Nations must take the lead, saying American involvement will be limited to helping bring in supplies for the peacekeepers and humanitarian aid for Liberians.

Administration officials have said they envision a force of no more than a few hundred helping the peacekeeping mission.

Arriving Wednesday, the seven U.S. Marines in jungle-green camouflage and armed with automatic weapons landed at the U.S. Embassy. But they drove out of the gates within minutes and headed for the airport.

At a hangar there, Americans and Nigerians stood surrounded by duffel bags and Nigerian armored personnel carriers, trucks and fuel tankers, conferring and taking notes.

"There are certain things we cannot provide you with," one American could be heard telling his Nigerian counterparts.

All parties waited to see if Taylor keeps his pledge to leave Liberia.

He scheduled an appearance today before Congress to officially announce his intention to resign. It was unclear whether power would go to Vice President Moses Blah or House Speaker Nyundueh Monkomana. Taylor has said both men were candidates.

But Taylor's government has hedged about his departure, saying he would leave only after enough peacekeepers are on the ground and if a U.N. war crimes indictment based on his support of rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone is dropped.

"The warrant never goes away, and the court will be there for a number of years," Jacques Paul Klein, the top U.N. envoy for Liberia, said in New York. "So go while the getting is good in a sense."

The office of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a statement insisting there would be no hitches in Taylor's departure, saying it was "finalizing arrangements."