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People in Liberia's besieged capital readied to welcome the first peacekeepers Monday, but the commander of the West African force tempered expectations by saying that the first contingent would only secure the airport outside the bloodied city.

Liberians watch a Ghanaian soldier standing guard in the Mamba Point area of Monrovia, Liberia, Aug 3, 2003. [AP]

Residents bought white T-shirts and gathered white cloths to wave - the most festive greeting Monrovia's people could offer for Monday's promised deployment after two months of rebel sieges that sparked fighting that killed more than 1,000 people in the city of more than 1.3 million and nearly cut off food and clean water.

The first troops were expected Monday in helicopters, from bases in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Nigerian Brig. Gen. Festus Okonkwo, the future force's commander, said planners weren't sure how many troops they could get in on Monday, or whether there were enough aircraft overall.

"We are going in with as much troops as possible," Okonkwo told reporters late Sunday in Sierra Leone. "We know that the situation is bad in and around Monrovia."

The first forces would only secure the now government-held airport, Okonkwo said. The airport is about a 45-minute drive on a government-held road from the capital, where fighting has raged daily between President Charles Taylor's fighters and rebels battling to overthrow him.

Okonkwo said he expected no attacks upon Monday's deployment, and said he had called upon both sides to tell them to return to their positions at the time they signed a June 17 cease-fire that has been repeatedly broken.

About 300 Nigerian troops were to be deployed Monday, but it was unclear whether the West Africans would be able to get that many troops on the ground the first day. They are to be the vanguard of a 3,250-member West African force.

On Sunday, a small West African assessment team laying the groundwork for the peacekeepers was gathering generators, food and fuel. Some of the goods were provided by U.S. suppliers through an already-announced US$10 million U.S. support contract for the mission, said Col. Theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the force's chief of staff.

Debt-strapped Nigeria says it needs far more international backing for the mission, expected to eventually cost at least US$2 million daily.

On Atlantic Ocean beaches, fishermen and fighters took occasional glances at the horizon - where the U.S. Defense Department said two of three U.S. warships being sent to support the West African peace force waited, newly arrived but out of sight to Monrovia's people.

Taylor, a former warlord, pledged Saturday to cede power on Aug. 11 - meeting one demand by fellow African leaders and the United States.

Taylor's camp on Sunday hedged on Taylor's recent promises to go into exile in Nigeria - saying that Taylor's agreement to yield power should be enough.

"The international community should give him a break. He's made the ultimate sacrifice," by handing over power, Information Minister Reginald Goodrich told The Associated Press.

"No one should ask him to do more than that," Goodrich insisted.

Taylor has been promising to yield power since June 4, when a UN-Sierra Leone court revealed a war-crimes indictment against him for his support of rebels there in a brutal civil war.

The United States has demanded the departure of Taylor, blamed in 14 years of conflict in Liberia that have killed more than 100,000 since 1989, and accused of trafficking and arming insurgents across much of the region.

Taylor made, and broke, repeated cease-fires, peace accords and power-sharing deals in the 1990s, often launching attacks on past deployments of West African forces here.

Taylor's government said Saturday that Taylor would leave Liberia only when an adequate number of peacekeepers are on the ground, and when the war-crimes indictment is dropped.

UN prosecutors are adamant that Taylor face justice, heightening prospects of a standoff with the international peacekeepers and foreign powers.

The UN Security Council on Friday endorsed the deployment of the multinational force to Liberia. The deployment is to last two months, and be followed by UN peacekeepers in October.

It was unclear whether US Marines, deployed to Liberia's coast in three warships, will ever go ashore.

US President George W. Bush administration has insisted that West African peacekeeepers take the lead despite calls from Liberians and leaders from around world that U.S. forces spearhead the deployment. The United States oversaw Liberia's 19th century founding by freed American slaves, and the two countries remained commercial and strategic allies up to the end of the Cold War.

On Sunday, intermittent automatic weapon fire - and more occasional explosions at a bridge between rebel- and government-held sections of town - could be heard in Monrovia, sending people sprinting across streets as they scouted out food and water.

Defense Minister Daniel Chea reported heavy fighting Sunday in Buchanan, Liberia's second city, where he said government fighters were trying to "push the rebel scumbags out."

Liberian Gen. Benjamin Yeaten claimed rebel mortars had hit a hospital in fighting at the northern town of Gbarnga, killing an unknown number of patients.

Yeaten also reported fighting in the eastern towns of Tappeta and Beatuo near the Ivory Coast border.

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