New Liberian president Mr Moses Blah today sought to make peace with rebel forces and called on US help to bring stability to the war-ravaged country.
The former vice-president to outgoing president Mr Charles Taylor today offered his former post to rebel leaders.
But the rebels, who mistrust Mr Taylor's former deputy, have already said the October date set by West African leaders for Mr Blah to hand over to an interim president is too long.
Mr Taylor, a warlord who fought a brutal civil war and finally won power in a 1997 presidential election, stepped down yesterday.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Blah also called on US marines force off the Liberian coast to come ashore. "My message to President Bush is: please President Bush come and save Liberia . . . please save us from this nightmare, we are suffering, we are dying," he said .
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington the US commander would go ashore in the next day or so to see how his force could help West African peacekeepers open a rebel-held port in the capital Monrovia and release aid needed to stave off a humanitarian crisis.
Describing himself as a "sacrificial lamb", Mr Taylor flew into exile in Nigeria under domestic and international pressure. It is hoped his departure will bring an end to the violence that has racked West Africa state for nearly 14 years.
The rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) had promised to withdraw from the port in Monrovia and hand over to Nigerian peacekeepers once Mr Taylor had gone. Contacts between US officials and rebels are expected today.
With looters out even before Mr Taylor left, many Liberians are hoping the US marines come ashore as soon as possible.
An estimated 2,000 have been killed this year in a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century as a haven of liberty.
The United Nations reckons about 450,000 people in Monrovia are displaced while 1.3 million - well over a third of Liberia's population - are exposed to serious risk of disease.