Liberia's government is to begin peace talks with rebels later today.
African mediators have pushed President Charles Taylor and the main rebel faction into agreeing a ceasefire for talks on Thursday in Ghana, offering at least temporary respite for hundreds of thousands of terrified Liberians packed into Monrovia.
But mistrust runs deep between Liberian foes who well remember more than a dozen peace deals signed and broken during a war in the 1990s. Many old faces from that war, which cost 200,000 lives, joined the new rebellion three years ago.
The president, himself a former warlord, is under United Nations sanctions for fuelling regional instability and was indicted by a UN-backed court last week for a suspected part in Sierra Leone's savage war.
Rebels of the main Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) faction and a group known as Model control at least two-thirds of a country founded by freed American slaves.
Talks stalled last week after LURD attacked Monrovia and the court indicted Mr Taylor.
Mediators hope to secure a permanent ceasefire this week.
The sole demand of both rebel factions is for Mr Taylor to quit, so that elections can be held without him. All factions have their origins in the tribal divisions exacerbated by the first war.