By Matthew Tostevin

Freetown, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone government forces said on Sunday that they were preparing to retake the town of Lunsar, which has assumed symbolic as well as strategic importance in the latest upsurge of civil war in the West African state.

"We have sent reconnaissance patrols to within three miles (5km) of Lunsar and we will take it when we are ready and we are sure we can hold it," one officer said.

Forces loyal to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah took Lunsar last Monday, only to lose it two days later after apparently running out of ammunition in the face of a determined rebel attack.

Lunsar was the furthest the government forces had advanced into rebel territory since civil war resumed last month, but their inability to hold their position was a blow to the morale of the often disorganised loyalist troops.

The town lies about 105km north-east of the capital, Freetown, on the road to the rebel bastion of Makeni and the eastern diamond mines, whose gems have helped fuel the nine-year civil war in the impoverished country.

Military sources said that after the army's failure to hold Lunsar, officers from the former colonial ruler Britain were providing advice on logistics.

Control of key towns has often swung back and forth in the bush war, where combatants rarely hold positions in the face of a clearly stronger enemy and civilians have often borne the brunt of the casualties.

It is not clear what resistance, if any, the loyalist troops will meet in Lunsar. On Friday, a spokesperson for the United Nations mission in Sierra Leone said aerial surveillance suggested there was no rebel presence in the town.

Fighters from the war front say one problem for the government remains the cohesion of the motley alliance of loyalist forces that is drawn from the army, a hunters' militia and soldiers who toppled Kabbah in 1997 but have now rallied to his cause to fight their former rebel allies.

But apart from British advice, the government also seems to be benefittng from a more robust United Nations peacekeeping effort in the past few days.

An Indian battalion of peacekeepers advanced on Friday in the face of rebel resistance to take a key road junction at Rogberi, just 18km from Lunsar, forming a valuable rearguard for the government forces.

The peacekeepers have promised a vigorous response to any attack on Rogberi, close to a position where four Zambian UN soldiers were killed trying to defend it when rebels defied a 1999 peace accord to advance towards Freetown a month ago.

Taylor chides Britain

In Monrovia, Liberian President Charles Taylor criticised Britain for arming government forces in Sierra Leone, saying security should be left to UN and West African peacekeeping troops.

"This government is opposed to the British government arming any group in Sierra Leone calling itself the Sierra Leone army," he said at a reception in his honour on Saturday night after returning from a foreign trip. "We believe it is a direct threat to peace in Sierra Leone."

Last month, Britain announced it would send light weapons and ammunition to the Sierra Leone government, but immediately ran into a political storm when a picture emerged showing a 14-year-old fighter brandishing what is believed to be a British-supplied rifle.

Taylor was for long considered a key backer of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone and is a close friend of their captured leader, Foday Sankoh.

Earlier on Saturday, he said his country had promised to send two companies of troops to Sierra Leone as part of a planned West African peacekeeping force of 3 000 soldiers.

The West African force is intended to reinforce a UN peacekeeping mission which already has 11 000 soldiers on the ground and aims to reach 13 000 later this month.

"We believe that only the peacekeepers, that amount to 16 000 troops, should provide security for the state of Sierra Leone," Taylor said.

Hundreds of British troops were sent to Sierra Leone in early May, ostensibly to evacuate British citizens. They ended up playing a crucial role propping up the UN mission when it seemed on the verge of collapse.

At the time, hundreds of UN peacekeepers had been taken hostage by Sankoh's rebels. They have all now been freed, but more than 250 peacekeepers remain surrounded by rebels in eastern Sierra Leone. - Reuters

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