MONROVIA -- A peace deal signed by Liberia's government and rebel factions offered new hope to the broken West African country on Tuesday of an end to nearly 14 years of savage bloodshed.

The deal in Ghana between President Moses Blah's government and rebels holding more than three-quarters of the country came a week after pariah leader Charles Taylor flew into exile.

Under the deal, Blah will step down in October for a chairman of an interim government to guide Liberia to elections by 2005. The new cabinet will share power among the warring factions and other interest groups.

Political parties and civil society leaders at the talks in Ghana were due to come up with names for a chairman and vice-chairman from among their ranks on Tuesday. The former belligerents will then decide who leads Liberia.

The agreement came as welcome relief on the streets of Monrovia, where 2,000 people died in the most recent spell of blood-letting before the deployment of West African peacekeepers, backed by U.S. marines. "This country has not been in peace since as long as I can remember," said 38-year old Sanfo Massaquoi, putting his arm protectively around his eight-year-old daughter. "I hope there is going to be peace, so I can find a job and make a living."

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the signing of the peace agreement. ---------------Years of Strife------------

Liberians have known little but strife since Taylor launched a war to end dictatorship in 1989. After some 200,000 deaths, he won 1997 elections, but his former foes barely waited before starting a new insurrection.

Meanwhile, chaos spread to neighboring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast amid fears it could destroy the entire region.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes and aid workers are struggling to cope even with those just in Monrovia, where the rebel withdrawal has allowed access to the vital port.

"A climate of anarchy has been installed, there are lots of weapons in the country and the people are very poor -- they have nothing. There are insufficient peacekeeping forces," Christiane Berthiaume of the UN World Food Program said in Geneva.

WFP estimates that 500,000 people are in need of food aid but expects this to rise "when the security conditions allow us to leave the capital and evaluate the needs and the conditions -- probably deplorable -- in the rest of the country.

The Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel faction and a smaller group known as Model have said their war is over, but Liberians are still wary of declaring peace prematurely.

About 1,500 Nigerian troops are already deployed, but the number of West African peacekeepers should double. The current force is eventually meant to become a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The United States also has three warships sitting off a country that was founded by freed American slaves. It has sent ashore up to 200 marines from a 2,300-strong task force as well as mounting patrols with helicopters and jet fighters.

But President George W. Bush said U.S. troops would be out of Liberia by October 1 after a limited mission to help humanitarian aid reach the devastated country.