ABIDJAN (Reuters) -- Liberia's interim leader said on Monday he hoped to make a fresh start with neighboring Ivory Coast after wars poisoned the countries' relations, each having accused the other of backing rebels on its territory.

Gyude Bryant took over in Liberia a month ago after former President Charles Taylor's exile paved the way for a peace deal to end 14 years of war. He was speaking after his first meeting with Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo.

"I have come to Ivory Coast today to get to know him and to confirm to him and to the people of this great country of Ivory Coast that we are now committed to peace," Bryant told reporters in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan.

"I'm satisfied that starting now we'll begin a new day so that Liberia and Ivory Coast go back to the days before independence and right after independence and the good relationship that we had," Bryant said.

Relations between Ivory Coast and Liberia had been strained for years but soured further after Gbagbo accused Taylor of backing rebel groups who appeared in the west of the former French colony after an uprising sparked civil war last year.

Taylor in turn accused Gbagbo of backing a rebel group known as Model which emerged in southeastern Liberia after crossing from government-held Ivory Coast. A U.N. report said Ivory Coast "certainly encouraged" Model's formation.

Bryant said he had reassured Gbagbo that Liberia would now live at peace with Ivory Coast.

Under the peace deal, Bryant is in charge of a power-sharing government meant to shepherd the country to elections in two years. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in the country. However, Amnesty International said on Monday that civilians were still being killed, raped, used as forced labor and driven from their homes despite the peace deal.

"All parties to the conflict who signed the peace agreement a little over three months ago are violating the terms of that agreement, including a commitment to end human rights abuses," Amnesty International said in a statement.

It said more peacekeeping troops were necessary to protect civilians. The U.N. force will eventually reach 15,000 but so far only around 4,700 have arrived, and are mainly deployed around the coastal capital Monrovia.