The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said yesterday the hostage-taking of UN peacekeepers by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone's rebel chief, Foday Sankoh, was "unacceptable" and had to be stopped.
"The behaviou of the RUF and its leader, Foday Sankoh, is unacceptable," Ms Albright said. "The actions of Sankoh and the RUF need to be reversed immediately."
Her comments came as UN officials said the number of peacekeepers being held by the RUF had risen to as many as 318.
Ms Albright, speaking to a war crimes conference for journalists at the Freedom Forum in Washington, repeated US calls for the full compliance with the terms of last year's Lome peace accord, aimed at ending the west African nation's civil war.
"The Lome accords represented a package of compromises that provided the RUF an opportunity to play a legitimate political role in Sierra Leone. If the accords are broken, the provisions of that agreement are jeopardised," she said.
The peacekeepers were detained by the RUF as they attempted to disarm the rebels under the terms of the pact. Ms Albright insisted Sankoh and his forces follow through with promises to comply.
The secretary said Washington would continue to support UN efforts to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Committee for Sierra Leone that would investigate war atrocities.
On Thursday, a State Department spokesman warned Sankoh that a controversial amnesty for such crimes he had received on signing the Lome agreement could be jeopardised by his current activities.