Taylor accuses ECOMOG of training men to overthrow him

President Charles Taylor has accused the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, of training men to overthrow his government, according to news organisations.

Taylor reportedly told journalists at a news conference on Monday at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia that ECOMOG's former base, where arms and ammunition retrieved by the peacekeepers during a disarmament campaign are stocked, was to play an important role in a planned attack.

"We have learned that former ECOMOG soldiers are in mufti in Monrovia and ready to topple this government," Reuters reported Taylor as saying.

Last week, Kiss FM, a radio station founded by Taylor, had also quoted the president as saying the Liberian authorities had discovered a plot to topple him through a raid from the former ECOMOG base, Reuters reported. The radio station announced that, followng these reports, Taylor had deployed government soldiers at the base to protect the weapons stored there.

Last Thursday a UN official told IRIN that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN were examining ways of disposing of weapons left over from Liberia's seven-year civil war.