"I spent the night here on Tuesday, yesterday again I slept right here, I am prepared to sleep again here until I get registered inside there," said Jeremiah Dweh, 25, and computer studies graduate.

"I have always wanted to join the army. I ran away from the war here, spent most of my youth in refuge in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Now I am back home and I want to defend my country, and the best way to do it is by working in the army," he told AFP.

He is one of thousands of Liberian men who are desperate to join the army and have braved steaming days and nights on a concrete pavement outside the newly renovated barracks Barclay Training Centre in downtown Monrovia.

The US government, which is sponsoring the revamping of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has out-sourced the training of a 2,000-strong force to Dyncorp International, a Virginia-based security and aircraft maintenance services firm.

Recruitment started Wednesday and is open to all Liberians -- including members of the former AFL -- aged between 18 and 45 years.

Once applicants have gone through all the required physical and aptitude tests, they will be placed on a year-long probation during a probe into their backgrounds for any previous records of human rights violations.

Their pictures will posted across the country and "Liberians who have witnessed to or victims of any of the applicants can call hotline numbers ...so that international background investigators can investigate those allegations," said a joint US-Liberia statement published in the local media.

Recruits will learn basic military rules, regulations and skills, with education on the constitution, human rights and gender issues.

Habakuk Giah, 26, is working in the police, but his heart is in the army and he stands patiently in a line with a majority of unemployed youths, who are not only seeking to serve in the army but to get a job in a country with an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent.

Under a 1996 Abuja peace deal on Liberia which saw a brief lull in fighting, Liberia's army was supposed to have been re-trained years ago by the military wing of the Economic Community of West African States, but the plan fell through after Charles Taylor -- who relied on his militia groups -- won the 1997 elections.

"I have always wanted to join the army, but I was not prepared to be in an army full of people with no professional training," said 41-year-old general trader James Lemah.

"But my motivation has always been there and now that the Americans are here, I am going to undergo American training, the day has come," said an excited Lemah.

Dyncorp will help "to train a new, modern army to serve Liberia's future interests" according to a statement on the Dyncorp website.

The company has in recent years been hired by the US government to train police units in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US government maintain close links with Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded in 1847 by freed American slaves.

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