FREETOWN, June 2: The army major who escaped from jail to seize power over this impoverished country has named his associates to a military council, raising doubts about efforts to persuade him to step down.

Hours later, mortar fire could be heard shortly after 6 am (11.30 am IST) today in the west end of Freetown, where the military headquarters used by the coup leaders is located. This was followed by sporadic automatic weapon fire in several parts of the city, but the shooting eventually died down. It was not immediately clear who was doing the firing or what their target was.

The announcement yesterday came as American troops evacuated more foreigners caught up in the military coup against the elected government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

The coup leader, Major Johnny Paul Koroma, was named chairman and head of state of the council, which was dominated by soldiers and included several members of the revolutionary United Front rebel army, which waged a five-year civil war against the government.

United Front chief Foday Sankoh was named vice-chairman of the 20-member council despite being in custody in Nigeria on gun-running charges.

At the same time, negotiations aimed at a peaceful settlement to the standoff were being conducted in the capital. They involved African and European diplomats in addition to representatives of the mutineers.

No details of the talks being held at defence headquarters in Freetown were released but it was expected that the diplomats were trying to win a promise from Koroma to let Kabbah return to power in exchange for leniency for the coup plotters.

``The main concern is to avoid casualties to civilians, but there is a determination to remove the coup plotters,'' Sierra Leone's UN Ambassador, James Jonah said in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he was attending the Organization of African Unity summit.

So far, Koroma has received virtually no support for his takeover, which left at least 20 people dead in Freetown, forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 foreigners, and overthrew Kabbah's democratically elected civilian government.

In addition to diplomatic pressure, he is facing military pressure from Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea, which have poured more than 1,500 troops into Sierra Leone to signal their readiness to use force against Koroma if negotiations fail to end the coup.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.