UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council unanimously approved up to 15,000 peacekeepers for Liberia on Friday to help rebuild the country and stop marauding militias from robbing and raping.

The US-drafted resolution says the operation would include 250 military observers, 160 staff officers and 1,115 international police. It would integrate some of the West African soldiers there now into the UN force.

Nigeria has been the major player in peace efforts in Liberia, where its troops make up the bulk of a 3,500-strong West African peacekeeping force. Its peacekeepers helped subdue violence in the capital Monrovia but not in rural areas.

Some 200,000 people have died in 14 years of almost uninterrupted fighting in Liberia that began when former President Charles Taylor launched a rebellion in 1989 from neighbouring Ivory Coast promising national redemption.

"The general consensus is that this is a failed state," Jacques Paul Klein, the chief UN envoy for Liberia, said earlier in the week. "Now we have to rebuild the state."

"The former troops are robbing, raping. This situation will get worse before it gets better as the fighting is over and there is not yet any UN mission in place," Klein said.

He said he had offers of troops from Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa, Ethiopia and Namibia. Ireland is expected to supply a headquarters company and Russia may contribute 1,200 soldiers and officers.

Most European nations say they would increase assistance, provided there was some kind of American presence in Liberia. No troops are expected from the United States, but Klein said he hoped the Bush administration would continue a "residual" presence, such as helping with logistics, funds and transport.

Taylor, who has been indicted by a UN-backed court for inciting war in neighbouring Sierra Leone, went into exile in Nigeria in August under international pressure after rebels pushed deep into the capital Monrovia.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 09/20/2003 page8)