West African leaders to review peace process in Accra

West African leaders will review Liberia's year-old peace deal at a summit in Accra on Thursday, after a series of wrangles between the country's former warring factions and Gyude Bryant, the civilian head of the transitional government, diplomats said. "The one-day consultative talks under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will review the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement and will bring together leaders of the three warring parties and... Bryant," the country's special representative to ECOWAS, Francis Blain, told IRIN on Wednesday. The Accra summit, which will also be attended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki, was originally called to break the deadlock in the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire. The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur province was subsequently added to the agenda of the meeting in the Ghanaian capital, which diplomats said may stretch over several days. Liberia is the third item. Blain would not be drawn on the specifics of the Liberian talks, but other diplomats said some members of the power-sharing government were unhappy with Bryant "single-handedly running the affairs of government" -- a complaint which has been levelled before. "The main rebel group, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the former government of exiled Liberian leader Charles Taylor have been protesting over Bryant's decision to unilaterally appoint officials to government posts that were not allotted to any party in the power-sharing deal," one diplomat explained. After Liberia's 14 years of civil war, representatives of the three belligerent groups, political parties and civil society organizations signed an ECOWAS-brokered peace deal in August last year. This paved the way for a power-sharing government, headed by Bryant, a respected businessman, to take power in October. His transitional government is charged with overseeing the disarmament process and leading Liberia into general elections in October 2005. Moses Blah, who briefly held power after former President Charles Taylor was forced into exile in August last year, told IRIN on Wednesday that the peace agreement was "shaking". "The Accra meeting is geared towards putting the peace process on track," he said. "Lack of consultation is our main focus for the Accra meeting and I firmly believe that ECOWAS will deal with it to the satisfaction of all parties," he added. The three warring parties in Liberia were Taylor's government, LURD and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), another rebel movement created in early 2003 which rapidly overan most of eastern Liberia.