U.S. Arranging Airlift for Americans in Liberia

Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, facing defeat at the hands of an increasingly powerful rebel movement, has asked the United States to help him flee his West African country, and an airlift is being arranged to evacuate Americans, Bush Administration officials said Wednesday.

U.S. diplomats told Doe he should attempt to reach an accommodation with insurgent leaders, said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

Meanwhile, other officials said special flights will allow several hundred U.S. citizens to leave Liberia because of the deteriorating situation there.

These officials said the U.S. government is in contact with an air carrier that will fly the Americans to neighboring Ivory Coast, from where they will be flown to the United States.

The intermediate stop in Ivory Coast is necessary because the biggest airport still operating in Liberia is too small to accommodate large jetliners. The operation is expected to begin Saturday.

Some Americans are expected to be on two regularly scheduled Air Guinea international flights today and another on Friday. The State Department is strongly urging all Americans still in Liberia to leave.

The U.S. Navy has a four-ship flotilla and Marines in international waters off the Liberian coast to evacuate the Americans and possibly foreign diplomats if departures cannot be carried out through commercial means.

In response to a request from the Soviet Union, the United States has said it would be willing to include Soviet diplomats along with others in any evacuation, State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Officials said the State Department has been quietly asking several African countries whether they would be willing to provide Doe with a safe haven if he is forced to flee.

The rebels, led by Charles Taylor, are reported to be within about 30 miles of Monrovia, the Liberian capital.

Taylor has outlined a future for Liberia under his rule that calls for democratic elections, free enterprise and a nonaligned foreign-policy stance but with continued financial reliance on the United States and other Western countries.