West african troops arrived yesterday to begin an international rescue mission for Liberia, greeted by overjoyed civilians who spilled onto the airfield by the hundreds and screamed, "We want peace!"

　　Nigerian soldiers in camouflage and flak vests leapt out of white UN helicopters as they settled onto the tarmac at Liberia's main airport, outside the rebel-besieged capital.

　　Machine guns at the ready, the Nigerian soldiers, arriving from Sierra Leone, /where/ they had been serving on a UN force, crouched in driving rain, taking up defensive positions on the landing strip.

　　West african leaders have promised an eventual 3,250-strong deployment charged with helping end 14 years of conflict in Liberia - and overseeing the departure of warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, whom rebels have been fighting to oust over the past three years.

　　As an armored personnel carrier with mounted machine guns rolled off one flight, excited crowds evaded security and ran at the crew. "No more war. We want peace," they chanted.

　　Colonel theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the force's chief of staff, said he knew how much Monrovia's trapped people had been waiting for the day. "And we hope to live up to their expectations," Tawiah said.

　　West african leaders assembled the Nigerian-led force to quell fighting in Liberia, /where/ two months of rebel sieges on Monrovia have killed more than 1,000 civilians outright and left the refugee-crowded city of more than 1.3 million wracked by disease and desperately short of food and water.

　　Taylor, under intense international pressure, has agreed to step down after the foreign troops have deployed.

　　The main Liberian rebel /group/ said yesterday that its troops would withdraw from their positions, including at Monrovia's port, once West African troops arrived and established security.

　　The leader of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy also said the /group/ had renounced any claim on the presidency or vice presidency of a transitional government to be formed once Liberian President Charles Taylor steps down, saying it was doing so "for the sake of peace."

　　In monrovia, residents near the embattled port heard cheers and watched flares go up over the city set off by rebels celebrating the foreign troops' arrival.