"We only want the best, those people with the desire to put Liberia first, because the army will be the fulcrum of the new Liberia," Chea said in an interview, one day after the country began dismantling its bloated armed forces ahead of a US-funded restructuring of a smaller army.

"This country has been at war with itself for 25 years, and at the end of the day we have realized that the only thing that needs to survive is the Republic of Liberia," Chea said.

There has been no real standing army in Liberia since 1989, when then warlord Charles Taylor mounted an offensive against president Samuel Doe. When Taylor won the presidency in 1997, he uniformed his ragtag band of mercenaries and fighters, effectively factionalizing the national armed forces.

A full 80 percent of soldiers in uniform were Taylor loyalists, a signatory to the 2003 peace pact ending the second of Liberia's two civil wars told AFP.

Those war-era recruits, some 9,000 men and women according to defense department figures, will be the first to demobilize under the 16.4 million-dollar effort funded by the transitional government of chairman Gyude Bryant.

Severance payments will also be made to between 4,000 and 4,500 soldiers enlisted in the Armed Forces of Liberia before 1989.

None of these soldiers were included in the massive UN disarmament operation that demobilized more than 100,000 former combatants from three warring factions, Chea said, adding that those who tried to benefit from both were dealt with accordingly.

The United States has committed some 200 million dollars to help rebuild Liberia's security apparatus, with the restructuring and training of a new, 4,000-strong national armed forces included, Chea said.

A first round of recruitment and training for 2,000 soldiers is to begin in September, a month before the country's first presidential elections since

"We hope to have a first battalion ready by December so that it will be active in time to help the new government," Chea said.

The rules for joining the armed forces will be strict this time round, Chea said, warning that recruiters would be "meticulous".

"This army will not be a dumping ground as it has been during previous regimes," he said.

"This time around we will have an army that makes us proud, going out on peacekeeping missions and representing a strong and peaceful Liberia."

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