MONROVIA (October 30 2004): The Liberian capital Monrovia was under curfew on Friday after citywide riots killed at least five people two days before the end of a UN disarmament effort, provoking fears of a return to conflict in the West African state. "They can cut out my heart and this will not stop the fighting," said one youth, blood trickling from a cut on his face, a knife tucked into his belt.

"War is coming back to Liberia."

The rioting started late on Thursday in the densely-populated Paynesville district, punctuated by automatic gunfire as it spread throughout Monrovia.

Mosques, churches and religious schools were set ablaze by rioters who also upended and torched cars and looted houses and businesses.

National police chief Chris Massaquoi said there were several catalysts for the riot, the latest popular uprising in a capital teeming with former fighters from the civil wars that have raged almost unabated in the west African state since 1989.

"Initially there was an ethnic angle to the unrest, but we are not able to make an accurate judgement," he said. "We are not pointing fingers but there are lots of ex-combattants with arms who have not yet disarmed so we cannot rule them out."

The curfew went into effect at 1400 GMT and would remain in full force until otherwise noted, government chairman Gyude Bryant said.

"We appeal to all peace-loving Liberians to remain calm and resist the efforts of this small group trying to disrupt the peace," he said in a radio address.

"What happened in the country today is not an accident," he added. "We have credible intelligence that it was planned, organised and financed by evil forces who do not want to see an end to the disarmament and the success of the peace process."

Helicopters from the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL) circled overhead as peacekeepers moved in, sending rioters scattering with warning shots fired into the air.

"I have given orders to UNMIL police units and military troops to deploy to all affected areas and to react with maximum force to any activities of violence against innocent civilians and property," said UN special envoy Jacques Klein.

An AFP correspondent saw the bodies of three people run over by UN tanks that were trying to disperse the crowds in Paynesville, and of two people felled by bullets. Local media reported that two people were killed Thursday by a vehicle attempting to flee the violence.

UNMIL military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Brendan Geraghty said he had seen photographs of three of Friday's victims and heard reports of five fatalities, but denied that UN vehicles were responsible for any of the deaths.

An UNMIL source told AFP that 11 people were confirmed wounded by rocks and one person was in hospital with a gunshot wound.

Ten people were in police custody, he added.

Residents told AFP that men armed with AK-47 rifles were circulating in pickup trucks in the part of Paynesville that is generally populated by Mandingos.

Mandingos make up the majority of the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which launched an uprising against former president Charles Taylor in 1999, plunging the country into a war that was declared over in August last year.

The United Nations is due to wrap up its disarmament campaign on Sunday having registered some 85,000 people associated with three warring factions.

However many former fighters have complained that they have yet to receive promised benefits and have threatened reprisals should UNMIL fail to deliver.

The failure of the disarmament program following Liberia's first civil war, which ended in 1997 with Taylor's election, is considered a root cause of the second war.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004