West African defense chiefs struggled to finalize the details of a peacekeeping force for war-battered Liberia, as rebels announced a cease-fire and aid groups warned that many people in the capital were running out of food. European diplomats said a cease-fire was key to any deployment - particularly if the Americans are to be persuaded to participate. Three U.S. ships with 2,000 Marines and 2,500 sailors aboard were moving toward the Mediterranean Sea, where they were to await orders to head to Liberia. President Bush has made any deployment of U.S. troops conditional on the departure of President Charles Taylor, a former warlord indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone. Taylor has pledged to accept an offer of asylum in Nigeria - but only after peacekeepers arrive to ensure an orderly transition. In an interview with the New York Times, Taylor reportedly said he would step aside "within 10 days" and hand over power to the speaker of the House of representatives, Yundueh Monorkomna. Taylor would make the formal announcement Saturday, the Times reported Wednesday. Taylor has repeatedly amended his resignation plans. Tuesday's cease-fire was already shaky with rebels trading machine-gun and grenade fire near three bridges connecting Monrovia's port to the northern suburbs and downtown - the last remaining Taylor stronghold. Sporadic shelling also persisted, with one round striking a house across the street from the U.S. Embassy compound. Shrapnel rained down on a second house next-door. Three people were killed and two seriously wounded near the embassy. Many Liberians believe a peacekeeping force could have averted the carnage Monday - when mortars shook the capital in one of the bloodiest days of fighting in three years of civil war. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States had not decided whether to send troops, while the European Union's special regional envoy, Hans Dahlgren told Swedish Radio, "one of the factors is whether there is really going to be a peace agreement to supervise." Some Pentagon officials said Bush was inclined to send in a smaller contingent - perhaps several hundred Marines - enough to provide command and communications support for the West African force. West African defense chiefs, meanwhile, were gathering in Dakar, Senegal, to finalize the force's composition and deployment schedule, Nigerian army spokesman Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu said. Foreign ministers were also there. One option, he said, was to divert to Liberia some 700 to 1,000 Nigerian troops from Sierra Leone, where the soldiers have taken part in a U.N. peacekeeping force. Nigeria, Mali and Ghana are willing to contribute troops, but need foreign financial backing, Nigerian presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said. The participants also want other countries - including South Africa, Morocco and the United States - to send soldiers. "We don't have any timetable for when the U.S. might send troops. But diplomatic talks are going on by the hour and things can change rather quickly," Oyo said. Hospital officials and aid groups counted more than 100 killed Monday, but the toll was believed to be much higher. Defense Minister Daniel Chea placed it at well over 600. Chea demanded the international community either send peacekeepers immediately or lift an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations to punish Taylor's regime for trading guns for diamonds with Sierra Leone's rebels. "Our people are being held hostage," he said. Aid workers were removing the last of the bodies dragged in front of the U.S. Embassy on Monday by enraged residents, demanding to know when the United States would send troops to the country founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago. Meanwhile, government and rebel delegates meeting in nearby Accra, Ghana, struggled to meet a deadline Tuesday to agree to details of a unity government promised under a repeatedly violated June 17 cease-fire. Despite continued differences, Charles Benny of the main rebel movement, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, expressed satisfaction with recent progress on the peacekeeping force. "Our troops are being told to cease fire," he said. The government, however, said they have seen no change. "We do not trust them and they've continued to fight us all day, using the same weaponry. We have seen no change," said Taylor's spokesman, Vain Paasawe. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A father carries his daugther killed during a mortar attack outside the US embassy in Monrovia(AFP/Georges Gobet)