No date set for peace talks - contact group

With the intensification of hostilities in Liberia there have been mounting calls by Liberians for peace talks to resolve the conflict. However, no date has been fixed for the talks, according to the head of a delegation sent to Monrovia by the International Contact Group on Liberia (ICGL). The delegation, which carried out a one-day assessment and consultative visit to Liberia on Tuesday, was headed by Ghana's Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa. Dankwa told reporters at the Liberian presidential palace following a close-door meeting with President Charles Taylor that Ghana, which currently chairs the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) "may host the peace talks". He added that more work needed to be done to ensure comprehensive peace for Liberia and the Mano River Union region, which comprises Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The Ghanaian Minister said "some contacts have been made with LURD [Liberians united for Reconciliation and Democracy] and they have put forth certain demands that are under review", he did not elaborate. Malian President A. Toumani Toure had offered to host a Liberian peace conference in Bamako but the talks, originally scheduled for 10 April, were postponed. No official reason was given. LURD rebels had recommended that the venue be changed from Bamako to Dakar while Sierra Leone's Ambassador to Liberia, Patrick Foya, announced on Thursday in Monrovia that his country had offered to host the talks. The ICGL delegation also held consultative meetings with Liberian political parties and civil society groups. The creation of an international contact group on Liberia was recommended at a meeting of exiled Liberian politicians and representatives of interest groups held in July 2002 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The idea was to get the international community involved in the effort to end the Liberian conflict. The ICGL comprises representatives of Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the African Union, the European Union, the ECOWAS Secretariat and the United Nations.