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In a surprise move, Liberia's caretaker government and rebel leaders yesterday named businessman Gyude Bryant to head an interim government tasked with reconciling and rebuilding the war-ravaged west African country.

General Abdulsalami Abubakar of Nigeria, the chief mediator in the Liberian peace process, announced that Bryant would be sworn in as the chairperson of the interim government in October and remain in power until 2006.

His deputy will be Wesley Johnson, chairperson of the United People's Party.

Bryant, who heads the Liberia Action Party, was considered the least likely of three candidates proposed for the top job by 18 political parties and civil groups attending talks here in the Ghanaian capital Accra.

The other two contenders were Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a veteran opposition figure and a former UN official, and Rudolph Sherman from the True Whig Party, which ruled Liberia non-stop for over a century, from 1871 to 1980.

One source at the talks said the choice of Bryant was "totally unexpected", and a Liberian journalist speaking from Monrovia echoed that sentiment.

"I am surprised. Everybody said that Ellen (Johnson-Sirleaf) would be the right person at this time because of her connection with the United Nations and the international community," the journalist said.

"At this time when the UN is thinking of sending in a peacekeeping force under Chapter VII of the (UN) charter, it would been helpful to have someone like her," he said.

But Bryant himself told reporters he was not taken aback by his nomination.

"I am not too surprised because the Liberians need a neutralist and I believe I am a neutralist," he said.

"I hope I bring a healing character so that we can start to heal the wounds, cool down the tempers, call off the anger and reconcile our people for a proper foundation for the rebuilding of our country.

"Tempers are inflamed and anger is high. ... We are too divided".

Abubakar told the new appointees that they faced monumental challenges after the formal end this month of the latest phase in a cycle of 14 years of bloodshed, when a peace pact signed Monday ended a four-year rebel war against former president Charles Taylor.

"All of you need to bear in mind that as a team you have an enormous task on your shoulders but as the chairperson and the vice you have to lead the team in ensuring that the wounds are healed," he said.

Bryant acknowledged that he faced overwhelming problems: 450 000 displaced people living in the capital Monrovia amid a crippling scarcity of food, water and medicines; 85 percent of the work force unemployed, and thousands of combatants who must be disarmed.

"We have to disarm all these young men, we have to provide medical care, we have to provide basic food and water, we have to make it safe for people to simply live. ... That's an awesome task".

Information Minister Reginald Goodridge said Bryant was the ideal man to lead the country to peace, hailing him as "an excellent and efficient man" who was totally non-partisan.

"He's exactly the kind of man we need for reconciliation," Goodridge said. "He has never been involved in conflict in the country.

"He's never been in exile and it's important because his continuous stay in Liberia means he knows perfectly the problems in the country".

The decision on Liberia's next leader was taken by the country's two rebel groups and the caretaker administration of President Moses Blah, Taylor's former deputy who succeeded the warlord-turned-president on August 11 when the latter resigned and quit the country.

Neither the rebels nor the caretaker regime were allowed to field candidates for the two top posts.

The new interim government will take power on October 14 – the date the mandate of the disgraced Taylor, elected president in 1997, would have officially ended - and take the country through to elections set for late 2005.

The African Union (AU) yesterday welcomed the Liberian peace deal, hammered out under mediation by the regional Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

"This development is an important step forward to end the suffering of the Liberian people and to rebuild the country," Amara Essy, the outgoing interim chairperson of the African Union Commission, said in a statement.

"All concerned parties in the conflict should seize this opportunity to work together in order to restore lasting peace and stability," Essy added. – Sapa-AFP.

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