A vanguard of up to 1,500 Nigerian soldiers is to begin arriving in Liberia by Monday ahead of a 2,000-strong regional force tasked with enforcing a ceasefire between government forces and rebels seeking to overthrow Taylor, leaders of the West African ECOWAS grouping decided Thursday at a summit meeting in Accra.

Taylor, an indicted war crimes suspect, was told to hand over power in the three days that follow the deployment of the full peacekeeping force and depart for Nigeria, which has offered to take him in, said the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

In Monrovia, the guns fell silent for the first time in the capital after two weeks of daily mortar attacks, according to Taylor's military commander there.

"There is no fighting this morning for the first time in two weeks," General Benjamin Yeaten, deputy chief of staff, told AFP from the frontline. "The fighting stopped just minutes after midnight."

ECOWAS executive secretary Mohamed ibn Chambas and the foreign ministers of Ghana and Togo were to travel to Monrovia on Friday to discuss with Taylor the arrangements for the handover of power to his successor. The regional bloc did not specify who that successor would be.

Taylor's spokesman Vanii Paassewe said the beleaguered leader, who after almost five years of war only controls about a fifth of Liberia, will "not necessarily" abide by the ultimatum, suggesting that much wrangling lay ahead for the envoys to finalise a deal.