UN sanctions on Liberia should be lifted -ECOWAS

MONROVIA, May 15 (Reuters) United Nations sanctions on exports of timber and diamonds from Liberia should be lifted if the West African country's economy is to recover from years of war, one of the region's top diplomats said today.

The trade prohibitions were imposed on Liberia during the final years of its civil war, a diamond-fuelled conflict which killed a quarter of a million people, devastated its once vibrant economy and left its infrastructure in ruins.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January after winning the first elections since the war ended in 2003, has pledged to rebuild the country, which is still without running water or electricity years after the guns fell silent.

''It is important sanctions should be lifted on the country for the new government to have access to needed resources to execute its programme and improve the living standards of the people,'' said Mohammed Ibn Chambas, executive secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

He said the international community must support governments in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone -- another state emerging from a brutal civil war -- where large numbers of frustrated, unemployed youths could still threaten stability.

''The danger is that if democracy does not produce quick dividends in both Sierra Leone and Liberia ... apathy and cynicism may begin to set in,'' he said in a speech at the opening of an ECOWAS summit in the capital Monrovia.

FALSE NOSTALGIA ECOWAS groups 15 West African states, including major oil producer Nigeria, and was established in 1975 to promote economic integration, peace and stability in the region.

''A false nostalgia may begin to set in for those who have hitherto cultivated the gun as a means of livelihood but who are currently unemployed,'' he said.

Timber and diamonds were among Liberia's top exports in the days before 14 years of on-off war ripped it apart.

Families squat in the dank ruins of government buildings in Monrovia, some built with American, Israeli or Chinese money when investment, not aid, was the main source of foreign income.

A United Nations mission visited Liberia last month to assess the steps taken by its new government in meeting the terms needed to lift the sanctions, imposed during the final years in office of former president and warlord Charles Taylor.

The sanctions -- along with one on weapons -- were imposed between 2001 and 2003 after the U.N. Security Council accused Taylor of fuelling war in neighbouring Sierra Leone through an illicit gems-for-guns trade.

The Security Council renewed the diamond and timber sanctions in December for another six months but asked an expert panel to take a fresh look at the bans by June 7. The arms embargo was extended at the same time for a further year.

Liberian Finance Minister Antoinette Sayeh said last month she was confident that the diamond and timber sanctions would be lifted soon.

Despite the diamond export ban, gems are easily smuggled out of Liberia.

REUTERS PG PM0023