Monrovia, Aug 15: UN Chief Kofi Annan's special representative in Liberia, Jacques Klein, today said he would recommend the immediate lifting of UN sanctions imposed on the regime of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Klein told reporters that the sanctions, which included an arms embargo and had been imposed on Taylor's administration since 2001, should be lifted to allow the country to rebuild after years of bitter fighting.

"The process of healing in Liberia must begin now," he said. "I will try to go back to the UN (Security Council) and get them lifted as quickly as possible," he said. But he expressed concern that the number of West African ECOMIL peacekeepers deployed here for little over a week were woefully inadequate for the task ahead.

"To be candid, we don't have the amount of troops we need. We have on the ground some 770 Nigerian soldiers who are almost overwhelmed by the task they have been asked to do," he said. The eventual number of peacekeepers is estimated to go up to between 3,000 and 5,000 but Klein said there was a "pressing need to install a permanent task force."

He said that a UN assessment team would be brought in next week to look at the situation on the ground and report to the UN Security Council.

Klein stressed that Liberia, devastated by 14 years of almost constant conflict, should now try to rebuild as soon as possible.

Bureau Report