WEST AFRICAN LEADERS THREATEN LIBERIAN REBELS WITH SANCTIONS

West African nations threatened to impose sanctions on Liberian rebels if they fail to honor a new cease-fire set to begin at midnight tomorrow, Nigerian radio said yesterday.

As news of the cease-fire call was broadcast in the capital, Monrovia, a Nigerian jet fired rockets into the suburb of Caldwell, a stronghold of of rebel leader Charles Taylor. The seven-nation West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG) was sent to Liberia in August 1990 to stop the fighting that broke out after Mr. Taylor invaded in December 1989.

Nigerian state radio said leaders of nine countries agreed to block supplies reaching the rebels. They said the 12,000-man ECOMOG force would enforce the sanctions, but they would ask the United Nations for help.

Liberian officials described the call for sanctions as feeble and recalled earlier threats to impose sanctions unless Taylor disarmed his men. However, Ivory Coast, long accused of permitting the transit of supplies to Taylor, also signed the agreement.