Heavy gunfire rang out across Liberia's capital Monrovia today as rebels and forces loyal to President Charles Taylor battled for key bridges while residents dodged bullets to search for food.
Rebels thrust along a main road on the route to the airport but government forces pushed the insurgents back and the fighting quietened somewhat under pelting rain.
People set buckets, bowls and cups under tin roofs to collect pouring rain to drink. Food was harder to get - people scraped whatever they could from makeshift markets.
Earlier, bursts of heavy gunfire echoed around two bridges at the threshold of the city centre after rebels rejected a US call to pull out immediately so peacekeepers could deploy.
"We managed to hold them off at the bridge and push them back," army chief of staff General Benjamin Yeaten said.
The rebels of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) have been battling inside the city limits for 10 days to oust Mr Taylor, a former warlord who has agreed, under US pressure, to quit if peacekeepers come.
The government says 1,000 civilians have been killed in the latest attack on a city battered by 14 years of violence, including scores killed when mortar rounds slammed into the flimsy buildings where they were sheltering.
Aid workers said there were no reports of starvation, but hunger was growing. The traditional staple of green leaf sauce with rice has often become little more than the sauce.
Three US warships are sailing towards Liberia, though their role will be largely to support the West African force and there is no suggestion yet that US troops will deploy.