MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberians ventured back onto the streets of Monrovia on Saturday during a temporary lifting of a round-the-clock curfew imposed after at least seven people were killed in religious riots.

Mobs of stick-wielding youths rampaged through the streets on Friday after a dispute between Muslim and Christian residents in a suburb escalated into a full-scale riot, prompting the government to impose the curfew to quell the violence.

Interim leader Gyude Bryant said the curfew was lifted temporarily to allow residents to buy food, although most shops in the Paynesville suburb in the east of Monrovia where the trouble started remained closed.

"The curfew imposed yesterday is temporarily lifted from 10 a.m. this morning, till 4 p.m. this afternoon," Bryant told national radio.

"This measure is to enable our people to get food, medicine and other household items," he said. "The curfew will come back into force at 4:01 p.m. this afternoon, and will last until 7 a.m. Sunday morning."

Residents, who endured almost 14 years of civil war until former president Charles Taylor was forced into exile last year, emerged to inspect the damage caused by the riots.

Mussa Dolley, 37, the owner of a petrol station set ablaze during the violence, despaired of finding money to rebuild.

"This morning when I came on the road and saw my station, I wept," Dolley said. "I'm only depending on God to help me restart my business."

RESIDENTS FEAR REVENGE ATTACKS

U.N. troops from a 15,000-strong peacekeeping force (UNMIL) -- the world's biggest -- mounted patrols in armored vehicles as helicopters clattered overhead to deter troublemakers.

Residents feared the killings might spark revenge attacks in the suburbs, where they said they had seen armed fighters from the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy rebel group, which joined a coalition government last year.

"I saw the fighters with AK-47s and pistols in their hands. UNMIL must act now so that this thing will not get out of hand," said resident Jerry Tucker.

More than 80,000 fighters have been disarmed under a peace deal signed last year, but many guns remain in circulation and jobless ex-combatants sometimes vent their anger by rioting.

Witnesses counted three more bodies of victims who had been hacked to death or doused with petrol and set alight, bringing the toll from Friday's violence to at least seven. At least 17 people were wounded, an aid worker said.

Residents said at least six churches and four mosques had been burned during the sectarian clashes, rare in a country where battle lines have usually been drawn along loose ethnic or regional lines, rather than religious ones.

About 20 percent of Liberia's population is Muslim, 40 percent Christian and 40 percent follow animist beliefs.