By Reuters, 7/28/2003

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union called on Monday for the swift deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Liberia and said it was ready to consider support for such a force.

The Italian presidency of the EU said in a statement that a peacekeeping force should be accompanied by Liberian President Charles Taylor stepping down immediately.

EU officials would not comment on whether the bloc might consider sending troops, but a diplomatic source close to the EU, who declined to be identified, said the statement referred to financial support.

The EU, which has granted $4.0 million in humanitarian aid to organizations helping in Monrovia, has not been asked to support a peacekeeping force financially, but is willing to consider such a move.

"The European Union stands ready to consider support for such a force," the statement said.

Liberia has been battered by 14 years of civil war and the government says the latest attacks by rebels have killed 1,000 civilians in the capital, Monrovia.

West African officials met in Ghana's capital Accra on Monday with the Nigerian head of a planned peacekeeping force, Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo, and U.S. and regional military experts to finalize plans to send in troops.

Nigeria has said it would like some kind of truce in place before deploying troops and an army spokesman said an announcement on when it might start sending troops could come as as early as Tuesday.

The regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has said troops will arrive some time this week. West African leaders have pledged to deploy some 1,300 Nigerian soldiers as a vanguard force of a larger mission.