The curfew was imposed on Friday after a religious dispute led to riots in which at least seven people died.

It was briefly lifted for six hours on Saturday to allow residents of the city to buy food and medicine.

The riots damaged churches and mosques, but Mr Bryant said hooligans, not religious extremists, were to blame.

It is not clear what sparked the violence on Thursday evening in the commercial suburb of Paynesville, which spread across the capital to other districts including the port area.

United Nations peacekeepers struggled to restore calm as rampaging groups looted into Friday morning.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has condemned the unrest.

It was one of the most serious outbreaks of violence in Liberia since former President Charles Taylor went into exile in August last year as part of a peace deal to end 14 years of civil war.

Mr Bryant heads a transitional power-sharing government set up to organise elections.

There are some 15,000 UN peacekeepers in Liberia. They are due to finish disarming the estimated 40,000 former militiamen by the end of October.

Speaking on UN radio after the clashes, UN police commander Mark Kroeker said several houses were destroyed and numerous people injured.

"We have had to extract numerous people from various situations and rescue them from mobs during the night," he said.