The former warlord, who has been fighting an uphill battle to quash the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which took up arms against him in 1999, has effectively rendered the real army powerless, say observers.

"Liberia does not have a standing army. What you have are Mr. Taylor's bodyguards. There's a need to restructure the army to ensure total peace in the country. Without a restructured army, there will be no peace," analyst Patrick Anderson argues.

Some experts say ethnic divisions fueled by the brutal seven-year civil war, which ended in 1997 when Taylor was elected, and his nearly psychopathic fear of a possible coup have led him to give power to a handful of unquestionably loyal soldiers.

"There is no AFL (Armed Forces of Liberia) in the real sense of the word. What we see are militiamen playing the role of the armed forces. Soldiers of the AFL hardly get any pay," said journalist Alfred Weah.

"You see them shabbily dressed, begging for money at street corners, while militiamen take home bags of rice and receive US dollars at the end of every month," he said.

Weah said Taylor relied "on ragtag militiamen for national defence and his own personal protection."

Indeed, one of the first things Taylor did when he came to power in 1997, was to demobilise or retire 2,250 armed forces personnel -- most of them ethnic Kranhs like slain president Samuel Doe -- and replace them with his own fighters.

Forces led by Taylor and backed by Gia and Mano ethnic groups, which had been subject to severe repression under Doe's regime, had launched a guerrilla war against Doe at the end of 1989, plunging Liberia into its particularly brutal civil war that was both fueled by and exacerbated ethnic divisions.

Taylor also disbanded the former executive mansion guard and Doe's elite presidential guard, the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU), creating in their place a new much-feared Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) entrusted with his own safety.

Real military might in Liberia now rests with the ATU, which was formed from the remnants of a guerrilla group led by the president during the civil war.

Led by Taylor's son, the ATU comprises more than 2,000 men and operates throughout Liberia. Its members enjoy sweeping powers and are often accused of rights abuses.

To a lesser degree, military power still rests with former combatants from Taylor's erstwhile National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel faction who have been inducted into the army, the police, the fire service and several other para-statal security units.

The official government line, meanwhile, is that the Liberian army was whittled down because it was unmanageable, having grown "from a pre-war level of 6,500 to 14,981 servicemen".

One analyst said, on condition of anonymity: "The AFL is being used as cannon fodder. They are sent to the frontline to die because Taylor does not trust them."

Saa Gborie, a Monrovia resident, said morale among AFL soldiers was very low.

"They are frustrated. They have been completely marginalised. These are people who have spent years in the force, attended the best military academies and yet have been completely forgotten."

"Each time you go to the defence ministry headquarters, you see scores of them standing by idly waiting for either an assignment or salaries which have not been paid for 18 months now," Gborie said.

Taylor is under UN sanctions for allegedly backing former rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone, a charge he has steadfastly denied along with accusations of blatant human rights violations levelled against his government, the armed forces and ATU.

The LURD has vowed to topple Taylor, but its battle with the government has been inconclusive despite the insurgents coming right up to the doorstep of the seaside capital Monrovia more than once.

SPACE.WIRE