UN envoy meets with Liberian President

As humanitarian workers in Monrovia scramble to get desperately needed food, medicine and water to thousands of war-weary people, the United Nations envoy for the country met today with President Moses Blah and toured the outskirts of the shattered capital, looking for ways to get basic services up and running as soon as possible.

Jacques Paul Klein, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Liberia, is in Monrovia where he met with President Blah, head of the interim government and who succeeded former President Charles Taylor, who left for exile in Nigeria on 11 August.

Mr. Klein spent much of yesterday visiting the water and electricity generating plants on the outskirts of the capital with an aim to quickly restarting the vital services to the city.

Meanwhile, UN and other humanitarian agencies continue to work hard to bring much needed assistance to those in need. But while several ship- and planeloads of food have been delivered by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and other groups since West African peacekeepers secured the capital's port last week, aid officials concede it is still far too little, particularly with untold thousands struggling for survival in the countryside beyond the city limits.

Now that the warring parties have signed a new peace accord and promised relief workers and organizations wider access to the country, UN agencies are conducting assessments that would allow them to re-establish operations in areas that had been severed from aid by fighting. Later in the week, a similar assessment will be undertaken in the Liberian port town of Buchanan.

In the meantime, Mr. Klein and his team are expected to undertake preparations for the arrival of a UN assessment team, whose report will form the basis of the request to the Security Council for a mandate for the peacekeeping force for Liberia.