MONROVIA -- UN agencies were to start distributing desperately-needed food in the Liberian capital Saturday as a second batch of Nigerian troops was expected to arrive to reinforce a West African peacekeeping force.

Gregory Blamoh, national officer for the UN World Food Program said food distribution would start at five sites in Monrovia, which has been besieged by rebels for more than two months.

The insurgents held the port, the gateway for food and other essential supplies for three weeks.

But on Thursday, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels handed over control of the two key bridges leading into the heart of Monrovia to Nigerian peacekeepers from the West African ECOMIL force.

Blamoh said that food being distributed would mainly be WFP stocks left over in warehouses at the port despite massive looting on Wednesday and Thursday by both civilians and rebels before they handed over the harbor.

"We are going to start food distribution at five points in the city. It will be mainly cornmeal from what was left in our warehouses in the port," he said.

On Friday, the WFP tried to distribute food in the center of the city, but ran into trouble when mobs started pushing and even trampling each other.

"It's not the kind of situation that we want," said Blamoh. "We desperately need more boots on the ground, we need at least 5,000 troops to secure the situation," said Jacques Klein, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special representative in Liberia, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, a second Nigerian battalion of peacekeeping soldiers was expected to land at Robert International Airfield, south of the city, after repeated delays.

Bad weather forced a flight that was due to take the battalion to Liberia to divert, delaying the deployment for the second day running, aviation officials said Friday.

The 776-strong 26th infantry battalion has been languishing on the tarmac at Sokoto airport in northern Nigeria since Thursday, when they set off from their barracks expecting to be met by a privately-operated U.S. jet.

Also expected back later during the day was Liberia's new President Moses Blah, after talks with Liberia's two main rebel groups, who control four-fifths of the country.

Blah, who took over on Monday after former president Charles Taylor went into exile, was in talks with Sekou Damate Conneh, the head of the LURD main rebel group and the smaller Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL).

A West African official said Friday the three sides were still discussing "who should hold which post in the new government," which is due to replace Blah's caretaker administration in October. He said if an agreement was reached, a pact on the new government could be signed soon "maybe even on Saturday."

The departure of Taylor, who was at the epicenter of two civil wars that raged almost continuously for 14 years, has been hailed as a sign that Liberia's cycle of violence may finally be at an end.