Fighting lulls in Liberia as peacekeepers prepare to reopen key port.

(From Agence France Presse)

Fighting died down in Liberia as peacekeepers prepared to reopen the country's main port to bring in desperately-needed food and medicines to hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians.

Nigerian General Festus Okonkwo, the commander of the ECOMIL west African peacekeeping force, told AFP: "There have been no reports of fighting overnight. Everything is quiet at the moment."

Rejoicing at the departure Monday of Charles Taylor, Liberia's rebel warlord turned president, was cut short only a day later, when battles resumed in the second port city of Buchanan between pro-government forces and rebels based in the south. …