United Nations officials say almost 300 UN peacekeeping troops in Sierra Leone have backed down after being involved in a stand-off with rebel troops on a strategic road.

The peacekeepers had been confronted by heavily armed rebels from the Revolutionary United Front Force (RUF) who had refused to let them pass down the road between the towns of Kenema and Daru.

Despite a night on the road and hours of negotiations, the RUF force refused to back down, and officials said the UN troops from India and Ghana had been ordered to withdraw to nearby towns.

A former RUF brigadier who is now a member of the Sierra Leone government has been on the scene trying to help resolve the situation.

This is the latest in a series of confrontations that is being seen as a threat to the credibility of the UN mission in Sierra Leone.

In a separate incident on the island of Pepel, UN officials say a patrol from a Nigerian battalion of peacekeeping troops exchanged fire with rebel troops.

In the worst case, rebels took nearly 500 rifles and four armoured personnel carriers from a Guinean battalion that was on its way to join the peacekeeping force.

Rebel reluctance

Last year, Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and RUF leader Foday Sankoh signed a peace accord aimed at ending the country's protracted civil war.

Under the terms of the accord, RUF leaders gained places in government, and their fighters were supposed to surrender their weapons as UN peacekeepers moved into the country.

But large areas of northern and eastern Sierra Leone remain under rebel control.

UN peacekeepers said recently that mutilation and rape remained commonplace in rebel-held areas.

The disarmament programme has not gone according to plan, and rebels have appeared reluctant to accept the authority of the 6,000-strong UN force.