MONROVIA, July 27: Liberian rebels rejected US calls on Sunday to withdraw immediately from the capital Monrovia and said amid fresh heavy fighting that they would stay until foreign peacekeepers arrived.

A top West African official said Nigerian troops would move into Liberia this week and US President George W. Bush has ordered American troops to sail to positions off the Liberian coast to help West African peacekeepers deploy.

“Why should I pull back? We’ll hand over positions to the peacekeepers, not to (President Charles) Taylor,” Sekou Conneh, chairman of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), told Reuters in Abidjan by telephone.

Conneh said the rebels were ready to hand over some positions, like Monrovia’s port, when peacekeepers arrived.—Reuters