20 AMERICANS REPORTED MISSING IN LIBERIA.

Byline: George Gedda Associated Press 

As a five-ship naval group steamed toward Liberia on a still-undefined mission, the State Department said Monday that about 20 of the 470 Americans who were in the country a week ago remained unaccounted for.

Spokesman Glyn Davies said some of the 20 may have slipped out of the troubled country by means other than the evacuation carried out by Air Force helicopters that began last week.

The remainder either are content to remain in Liberia or have been prevented by fighting from making it to the embassy compound for evacuation.

As of Sunday, 65 helicopter sorties had evacuated 1,795 people from Monrovia, including 306 Americans. The evacuees hailed from 64 countries.

A spokesman for Charles Taylor, a top rebel leader, criticized the U.S. airlift. ``We do not think that the crisis is deep enough to warrant the airlift of people,'' said the spokesman, Reginald Goodridge.

Meanwhile, a three-ship amphibious group accompanied by a destroyer and a tanker was heading for waters off the Liberian coast where they were to await instructions and to be ready if needed.

Senior defense officials said there were no plans for a landing. During a previous Liberian crisis, in 1990, U.S. warships stood by for four months and left without intervening.

Davies said that as of noon Monday, the number of Americans at the U.S. embassy compound was 24 - all U.S. officials. He said 14 Americans had left over the weekend.

The remaining officials, Davies said, ``will continue their work of assuring the safety of American citizens and facilitating their evacuation from Liberia.'' They also will try to help negotiate an end to the fighting.

Despite close historical ties to Liberia, Davies suggested that the United States does not plan a major initiative in Liberia. But he said it would be wrong to suggest that the United States has abandoned Liberia.

``The fact that we're staying in a very dangerous situation is one strong measure of our interest and our ties to that nation,'' he said.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi accused the United States of failing to give enough financial or technical aid to the Nigeria-led peacekeeping forces from West Africa, known as ECOMOG.

``The United States has now failed because . . . the USA did not give full support to the efforts of ECOMOG,'' Ikimi said. ``They did not put at their disposal urgently needed resources or equipment.''

Last week, the State Department said up to 20,000 Liberians had descended on the U.S. housing compound near the embassy complex to escape the fighting, but Davies said Monday that a new estimate indicated the number was 15,000. Delivery of seven truckloads of food helped alleviate shortages at the compound.