Residents of Liberia's capital Monrovia prepared to be reunited on Friday almost four weeks after a rebel assault split the city in two and sent thousands fleeing for their lives.

U.S. Marines land in Liberia's capital onThursday to help West African peacekeepers take over security in the hungry and battle-worn city August 14, 2003. U.S. Marines, helicopters and screaming jets backed West African peacekeepers as they pushed into rebel-held areas of Liberia's battle-worn capital Monrovia on Thursday to a riotous welcome. [Reuters]

Rebel leaders and the new president of the West African country met on Thursday in the Ghanaian capital Accra hoping to end 14 years of chaos which has spread mayhem across West Africa and resulted in the deaths of a quarter of a million people.

Thousands of people thronged Monrovia's streets on Thursday to welcome West African and U.S. troops to areas around the port held by rebels for almost four weeks, but in a bid to keep order Nigerian peacekeepers blocked bridges carving the city in two.

At least 2,000 have died in weeks of fighting and aid workers said up to more drowned in a desperate bid to cross a river to get to aid stores at the port where peacekeepers were greeted hours earlier to elated cheering from civilians and rebel fighters alike -- even as looting continued.

Sources in the Nigerian-led ECOMIL peacekeeping force said the bridges would be opened at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, and aid workers hoped they would be able to begin a more orderly distribution of food and other aid.

Devastated by years of warfare, the city has been further plundered during the latest offensive by rebel groups whose stated aim has been to oust ex-warlord President Charles Taylor.

Bowing to international pressure, Taylor left on Monday for exile in Nigeria -- which has sent the backbone of a regional peacekeeping force to restore order to the chaotic nation.

Founded by freed slaves from America in the 19th century, Liberia has become a byword for instability and destruction, its war dragging down neighboring Sierra Leone and the region's economic powerhouse Ivory Coast.

The United States, which has traditionally had close links with Monrovia, has warships waiting offshore and on Thursday deployed over 100 Marines at the city's airport ready to back up the Nigerian peacekeepers in case of trouble.

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