LIBERIA: Liberia's government and rebel groups are expected to sign a peace deal today to establish an interim government after 14 years of strife.
Mr Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nations Special Envoy to West Africa, during peace talks in Ghana, said: "We are expecting the signing of an agreement tomorrow \, either by part or all of the delegates, but I think an agreement will be signed by all parties."
Regional mediators had warned they would suspend the talks yesterday after negotiations dragged on with the parties haggling over top posts in the interim administration.
However the chief mediator, former Nigerian head of state Mr Abdulsalami Abubakar, said progress had been made. "We are almost there. From the way we are proceeding, I don't think we will suspend the talks."
The interim government is due to take over in mid-October from President Moses Blah, who replaced Charles Taylor last week when the former warlord went into exile in Nigeria under international pressure.
Earlier yesterday West African peacekeepers tightened their grip on Liberia's capital, Monrovia, as rebel and government officials meeting in Ghana agreed to allow in foreign aid but haggled over interim government posts.
West African countries, supported by the United Nations, have told the warring factions they can have none of the top four posts in a transitional government administration.
In Monrovia, Nigerian-led West African peacekeepers extended their control.
"Liberia is getting quieter by the day," said Col Theophilus Tawiah, a Ghanaian officer with Ecomil peacekeepers.
He wasn't sure whether the force would deploy all the way to the Po river - the demarcation line agreed with rebels who began leaving the area they controlled around the port on Thursday as the peace force fanned out across the city.
Most rebels have gone, with the senior officers and others heading for the town of Tubmanburg, though a few remain.
At the Iron Gate checkpoint, a rebel commander known as "Bulldozer" stood guard surrounded by about a dozen fighters, guns slung over their shoulders.
Some were child-fighters, others wore long wigs and one sported a woman's fake-fur jacket.
"I will be controlling the area until I get new orders. If the chief of staff tells me to withdraw to Po river, I will," he said.
"Peacekeepers set up camp at the Free Zone - which was used as a base in the 1990s by another Nigerian-led West African peace force in an effort to end the war which Mr Taylor began in 1989.
That war calmed down after Mr Taylor's election in 1997, but it was not long before new rebel factions emerged to topple him.
The main rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) is demanding top government posts.
LURD delegates say fighters will refuse to lay down their guns without a top job, ideally vice-chairman - the equivalent of deputy president in the proposed administration - or parliamentary speaker. Those posts, however, are among the four which regional mediators have said should not go to the rebels.
Top LURD negotiator Kabina Ja'neh said the other posts on offer in the government and new assembly were "merely symbolic".
Mediators said both the government and another rebel faction known as Model appeared to be happy with the proposed deal.