Residents of Sierra Leone's battered capital Freetown heralded a shaky ceasefire announced by their president and his rebel foe, with sporadic explosions during the night underscoring the fragile nature of the truce.

As civilians waited for their first real respite today from the savage fighting that has shaken the city for two days, occasional light gunfire crackled through the streets.

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah gave news of the seven-day ceasefire in a live radio broadcast while rebel chief Foday Sankoh - in death row since October on a treason conviction - issued his orders in a recorded message immediately afterwards on the same broadcast.

''Our combatants should keep to their defensive positions and cease all hostilities,'' Sankoh told his forces, adding that he would join them soon.

But prospects for an immediate halt to hostilities remained uncertain after the military commander of the rebels attacking the city had cast doubt on the agreement.

Speaking before Sankoh's recorded broadcast, commander Sam Bockarie told BBC radio that Kabbah's word alone of the truce was not acceptable.

''If I see him (Sankoh) in person I'll take orders,'' he said.

Bockarie said his men, reported by Freetown residents to be retreating from counter-attacking West African intervention troops, would continue fighting.

Kabbah had told reporters that Sankoh would be released after seven days if certain conditions were met.

Late yesterday, a former resident of Freetown, Veronica Sharp from Scarborough in northern England, said shooting was still continuing according to her former husband in the Sierra Leone capital.

''His house is next to the Wilberforce barracks and the rebels are still trying to take it,'' she told Reuters by telephone.

The West African Ecomog intervention troops were also shooting curfew violators, she said, adding: ''My husband said he was watching them shooting.''

Freetown is under a 7.30pm to 6.30am curfew, and Ecomog has warned that violators would be shot on sight.

In the latest fighting before the ceasefire announcement, at least a dozen people - rebels and civilians - were killed by a bomb dropped by a plane of the pro-government Ecomog force.

A senior officer with the force, which has been battling the rebels for months, said: ''We will heed the ceasefire and keep a low profile militarily, while watching developments on the ground closely.''

''It is likely that Ivory Coast and Togo will be mediators for talks between the rebels and government,'' said a government source, adding that the aim would be to start a dialogue to find a long-term solution.

Conditions laid down by Kabbah for Sankoh's release were ''an immediate ceasefire, adoption of the (1996) Abidjan Charter and consultations with my cabinet colleagues''.

The Abidjan pact was meant to end earlier conflict between Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the government.

It stipulated cessation of hostilities, the rebels being allowed to form a political party, and the UN to supervise their demobilisation, reintegration, and rehabilitation.

Sankoh's rebels rallied to a coup mounted in May 1997 by dissident soldiers who succeeded in ousting Kabbah and setting up a military junta.

A Nigerian-led intervention force known as Ecomog finally ousted the junta in February and restored Kabbah to power last March. The rebels and renegade soldiers regrouped and launched a new offensive after Sankoh's conviction.

Yesterday, Kabbah told the nation of some 4.5 million people: ''During the seven-day (ceasefire) period we will work out modalities as to how he (Sankoh) will get access to his people.''

He said: ''If we just go on fighting and win the war, as we could surely do, after that we will still have to talk peace. So let us do both at the same time.''-Reuters