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Libe rian government troops yesterday pushed back advancing rebels trying to seize two key bridges which lead into the heart of the capital Monrovia, as heavy fighting continued elsewhere in the war-wracked city.

Defence Minister Daniel Chea said the government forces had repulsed a rebel advance on the Gabriel Tucker and Old bridges leading to downtown Monrovia, where the diplomatic quarter is also located.

"We are pushing them back," he said, adding that loyalist troops were within "half a mile of the port," a key area of the city taken by rebels on Saturday.

"We will defend Monrovia street by street and we will not rest till we have them out.... They have no business being here," he said.

Heavy fighting meanwhile raged in central Monrovia, where at least five rockets landed late in the afternoon, sparking panic anew among desperate locals.

Fierce clashes were reported from the northern area of Gardnersville and Somalia Drive, a main artery of the capital.

The newest offensive by Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd) rebels laid another devastating blow to a ceasefire, which was signed last month with the government but has in essence been nearly dead on arrival after being shattered several times already.

Witnesses said the rebels were apparently trying to control a route from Somalia Drive to Monrovia's Congo Town area, where several top officials, including President Charles Taylor, have their homes.

The Liberian police meanwhile displayed the body of a dead rebel who was killed earlier in the day during fighting on the two bridges under siege, which connect central Monrovia to the northern suburbs.

The dead rebel wore a T-shirt with the words Lurd force printed on it.

Last month, Lurd staged its most audacious attack on Monrovia in its four years of battling Taylor's forces, entering the heart of the seaside capital before pulling back ahead of the June 17 truce.

Under the ceasefire agreement, President Taylor, now in control of only a fifth of his country, was to have gone into exile to pave the way for an interim government and fresh elections to end the ruinous war.

The peace process, painstakingly mediated by west African leaders, has been left in tatters by the fighting and Monrovia has been rocked by the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

In central Monrovia, apart from sporadic gunfire and stray rockets, the city had gone deadly quiet yesterday.

Traces of the devastation, however, were abundant: cars charred beyond recognition, shards of glass on the streets and at least two adjoining homes hit by shells in the Snapper Hill area, killing one and injuring another.

Julia Fleming, who like thousands of others fleeing their homes is living on the streets, said she was fed up.

"We are suffering too much. We have no money, no home, no food and nowhere to sleep," the 47-year-old said.

"Shame on the world for forgetting us".

Varney Koffeh, who is also living rough in Monrovia like thousands of displaced people amid an acute shortage of food, water and medicines slammed the US for failing to respond to global calls to lead a peacekeeping force here.

"We are feeling very let down. You know that Liberians like to call their country Little America," he said.

Liberia was founded in the 19th century by freed American slaves.

The capital Monrovia is named after US President James Monroe and several areas in the city have US-inspired names such as Virginia.

Nigeria, west Africa's military powerhouse, has offered the embattled Taylor asylum if he agrees to step down and allow the shaky peace process to get back under way.

Taylor has accepted but has not said when he will leave.

A dozen officers from the Ecowas west African regional bloc have arrived in Liberia to prepare the way for a peacekeeping mission, which was conceived as a force to police a ceasefire but now faces the prospect of intervening in an ongoing conflict.

Nigeria is expected to provide the largest contingent of peacekeepers in the 1 500-strong force, which could eventually be joined by US troops.

The US has expressed alarm at the renewed fighting but has given no sign it is ready to commit troops to an international mission in the west African country, as widely requested. - Sapa-AFP.

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