US President George W Bush has demanded that Liberian President Charles Taylor leave the war-ravaged West African nation, as he neared a decision on sending US peacekeeping troops there.

We're exploring all options as to how to keep the situation peaceful and stable. One thing has to happen: Taylor needs to leave the country," he told reporters at the White House yesterday.

Bush, who leaves Monday on a whirlwind tour of Africa, was expected to decide as early as Thursday whether to send US troops to Liberia to lead or take part in an international peacekeeping operation, US officials said.

The officials said Bush would make his decision before leaving Washington tomorrow for the long US Independence Day holiday weekend, after which he departs for Africa.

"Everyone has weighed in," one official said, referring to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. "Now it's up to the president".

The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had already ordered military planners to prepare detailed plans for deploying between 500 and 2 000 US troops to Liberia as part of an international peacekeeping force.

Liberia was set up by freed black slaves in the 19th century and the US has sent troops there during previous troubles in 1992 and 1996.

Powell later told the "Sean Hannity" radio talk show that he had spoken UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has urged Washington to lead a peacekeeping effort in Liberia, for the second time in two days.

"The president is examining his options. But it's premature to say that he has made a decision and that an announcement is forthcoming in the next day or so," Powell also told the syndicated programme.

Earlier, Bush expressed concern over the suffering in Liberia, adding: "The political instability is such that people are panicking".

"But the good news is there's a ceasefire in place now. And one of the things that Colin is going to do is to work closely with the United Nations to see how best to keep the cease-fire in place".

One official said a meeting of top Bush aides on Liberia, the second in as many days, was held at the White House to review the administration's options.

That came as a 15-member international monitoring team left Ghana for Liberia yesterday to oversee a fragile June 17 truce signed between rebels and Taylor's government.

White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer would not describe the options that the president was weighing but he and other officials refused to rule out a major role for US forces in a peacekeeping operation.

Other potential ideas under consideration were a limited role for US troops, perhaps assisting with an evacuation of remaining foreigners from Liberia or a technical and logistical role in a UN force, officials have said.

Fleischer said the US president was considering how best to help an international effort to hold Liberia's warring factions to a truce they reached last week.

Bush will consider "whether, bottom line, it will be effective in helping the international community to enforce and maintain a ceasefire; whether it is the most effective way to do that; whether it can be done without US participation; whether it requires US participation," he said.

Meanwhile in Monrovia, war-weary Liberians urged Washington to stop stalling on their pleas to send troops.

In neighboring Ivory Coast, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said Nigeria might offer exile to Taylor, who has been indicted by a UN-backed court in Sierra Leone for war crimes during that country's 10-year civil war.

Hundreds have died in the latest fighting in Monrovia – the worst phase in a four-year rebel war that erupted soon after the end of a seven-year conflict in 1997, the year Taylor, a former warlord, was elected to power. - Sapa-AFP.