Rebels tightened the noose around Liberia's President Charles Taylor and the battle-scarred capital Monrovia on Tuesday after seizing the West African country's second city and port.

Rebels battling to oust the former warlord already hold the capital's port so the fall of Buchanan southeast of Monrovia on Monday meant there was no seaport left in government hands to ship in vital supplies of fuel and food.

Scores of fighters in pickup trucks raced out of Monrovia toward the southeastern port late on Monday, passing the main international airport which is Taylor's last major strategic card and less than 60 miles from Buchanan.

"Model rebels have captured Buchanan, but we are massing our troops outside to retake the city," one commander told Reuters.

Military sources said fighting also raged for Gbarnga, Taylor's stronghold during a civil war in the 1990s and a city on the main highway leading out of Monrovia, linking the capital to neighboring Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Battles raged in the heart of Monrovia for the 10th day on Monday as representatives of West African countries met with U.S. military experts in Ghana but failed to agree a date to deploy peacekeepers to Liberia.

"Right now we are completely encircled. We have nowhere to run. The sooner the peacekeepers come the better it will be for us," said Thomas Koko, a waiter in Monrovia.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told the BBC on Monday his country was ready to send 1,500 peacekeepers to Liberia, but needed a commitment of outside help first.

"What we are saying is give us adequate material and logistic support and we will do the job," he said.

LIBERIANS SEARCH FOR FOOD

Liberians, who have pleaded for international help to end the violence, scrambled in Monrovia in search of food under a torrential tropical downpour and a rain of zinging bullets.

People set buckets and bowls under tin roofs to collect rainwater to drink. Others killed dogs and cats to stave off growing hunger as food supplies ran short and prices soared.

The government says 1,000 civilians have been killed in the latest attack on the capital, battered by 14 years of violence as Liberia's rival ethnic clans battle for supremacy.

Scores have been felled by flying shrapnel as mortar bombs rain down on the city center, sparking condemnation from the international community and U.S. calls for a rebel retreat.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the "reckless behavior" of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) was disqualifying them from a future role in Africa's oldest independent republic.

Liberians have been pleading for the United States to intervene but so far the world's superpower has only promised logistical support for the African force.

Liberians look up to the United States as a big brother because their country was founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago. But the United States has also long been seen by Liberian authorities as a covert ally of the rebels because of its military aid to Guinea -- LURD's main backer.

Taylor, who has been indicted by a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, has agreed under U.S. pressure to quit if peacekeepers come to Liberia.

The State Department has sent its assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Walter Kansteiner, to meet West African leaders. His exact itinerary has not been disclosed although a visit to Guinea's capital Conakry is expected.

Three U.S. warships are sailing toward Liberia, though their role will be largely to support the West African force and there is no suggestion yet that U.S. troops will deploy.

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