MONROVIA, Liberia, Dec. 13, 2005

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(AP) Supporters of a former soccer star who lost Liberia's first postwar presidential elections clashed with police and U.N. peacekeepers, prompting the U.N. mission Monday to step up security across the capital.

George Weah, who claims the November elections were fraudulent and refuses to concede defeat, fired up hundreds of supporters in a speech late Sunday, saying Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's inauguration in January would not take place.

Weah's supporters later attacked U.N. and Liberian police in the streets of Monrovia, injuring several security officials, the U.N. said in a statement. Police detained 40 of Weah's supporters accused of rioting, the U.N. said.

The U.N. said it had bolstered security across the capital. It blamed Weah's political party for the violence, asking party leaders "to call on their supporters to prevent any further disturbances."

The November elections had raised hopes that Liberia would move past a 1989-2003 civil war that killed 200,000 people and devastated the West African country. Some 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers are keeping the calm.

Weah's speech recalled the fiery bombast used by warlords and factional leaders to stir up militants during the civil war.

"Fellow partisans, revolution is a noble cause. We must fight to obtain it," he told a cheering crowd. "It is our right to seek justice, and we will use all means to obtain that."

"I know one day we will be free," he added.

He vowed the Jan. 16 inauguration of Johnson-Sirleaf _ the first Africa woman to be elected president _ would not take place.

"There is no victor for now, and I say there will be no inauguration in the country until the world gets together and finds a means for a peaceful resolution to the problem," Weah said.

On Monday, Information Minister William Allen told Star Radio there was a plot underway to destabilize the country and "one or two" top government officials were involved. He did not specifically link the plot to Weah's speech or the violence that followed.

International election observers deemed the presidential elections largely clean, while the national elections council decided Weah's charges of ballot-box stuffing were groundless.