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The leader of the Liberia's main rebel movement has returned to the troubled west African country after nearly five years in exile in neighboring Guinea, his movement said Wednesday.

Sekou Damate Conneh, who has led Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) since 2002, arrived late Tuesday in Tubmanburg, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital Monrovia, with a full entourage.

His return follows the August 11 ouster and exile of former warlord and president Charles Taylor, who left Monrovia under international pressure and has been given asylum in Nigeria.

A week after Taylor quit, LURD and another rebel group signed a pact with the caretaker government led by former vice president Moses Blah, ending 14 years of almost continuous warfare in Liberia.

Under the pact, a transitional government was set up. It is due to take power next month and is tasked with leading the country to elections in two years' time.

A caravan of buses and cars and roughly 400 people accompanying Conneh made the journey from Conakry, and Sierra Leonean security forces surrounded the convoy as it cut through the country en route to the LURD stronghold town of Tubmanburg.

The 43-year-old head of LURD has already announced his ambitions to lead Liberia in a future government.

Before going into exile in 1998, he was minister of finance, and, rare for his rough-and-tumble rebel group, is a university-educated professional from an affluent background.

On Monday, Conneh said he wanted to be in Liberia to "see what is going to happen during the two-year transition period".

Before leaving Conakry, he had thanked Guinean authorities for their "active support" to LURD which enabled the "liberation of the country from a reign of terror".

"I appeal to Guinea to continue to support Liberia in its struggle to emerge from its current state and enable some 900,000 exiled Liberians to finally return home." Guinea repeatedly denied supporting LURD, which rose up against Taylor in 1999, plunging Liberia into a new war just two years after the west African country emerged from a seven-year civil conflict that left hundreds of thousands dead.

But Conneh has used Conakry as his base, and his wife, who has a villa there, is reported to be a "spiritual advisor" to Guinean President Lansana Conte.

Conneh has said his rebel force will help rebuild Liberia, now the world's poorest country after decades of warfare, rampant looting and graft.

Taylor, who has been indicted for war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's civil war, is suspected by UN officials to have stolen or diverted almost 100 million dollars from public coffers before fleeing the country.

Both Conneh's soldiers and rebels from a smaller movement, called MODEL, were sharply accused by UN humanitarian officials this week of using Liberian civilians for slave labor in areas under their control.

Some 3,500 west African peacekeepers are currently deployed in and around the capital. The United Nations has said it will send a 15,000-strong force to take over from October 1 - Sapa-AFP

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