Government forces in Liberia have been ordered to help find a British priest reported missing in the northern Tubmanburg area - the scene of recent clashes with rebel fighters.

The Roman Catholic church announced on Sunday it had lost contact with Father Garry Jenkins, who is thought to have had about 60 displaced blind people in his care.

All we can do and ask everyone to do is to continue to pray for their safety... We are just hoping that nothing more serious happens to them

Bishop Michael Francis

The priest was last seen a week ago, before rebels attacked Tubmanburg where he was caring for those displaced by previous fighting.

It is thought he could have been taken prisoner by rebels from the group calling itself Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd).

Last week, Lurd rebels advanced to within 16 kilometres (10 miles) of the capital Monrovia before being driven back to the north-west.

Captured white man

Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea - himself a Catholic - expressed the hope that Father Jenkins and the displaced people in his care were still alive and in the Tubmanburg area.

He asked the Catholic Church and those concerned about the missing people also to raise the issue with the leaders of the Lurd rebels as "it is possible that they might have taken the people away".

The minister told the BBC that since Monday morning, his men have been in control of parts of Tubmanburg which had been entirely in rebel hands for the past week.

Bishop Michael Francis urged Catholics to remember those missing in their prayers.

"All we can do and ask everyone to do is to continue to pray for their safety... We are just hoping that nothing more serious happens to them", he said.

Rebel spokesman William Hanson said earlier that some Lurd fighters had captured a white man - believed to the missing priest - and had been instructed to take him to the rebel headquarters in Voinjama.

"Everything is being done to make sure he gets to safety," he said.

Looted

Father Jenkins has been working in Liberia for 20 years, reports Reuters news agency.

He earned considerable respect for caring for people during the bloody civil war which raged from 1989-1996, Catholics in Monrovia said.

Catholic institutions have been the targets for looters in recent fighting around Liberia.

Thousands have been displaced by the fighting

This conflict is the latest round of fighting to rock the diamond-rich triangle of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Thousands of people have fled their homes as the fighting has intensified in recent months.

The Liberian Government says that a United Nations arms embargo mean it is unable to adequately equip its army.

The sanctions were imposed because of President Charles Taylor's support for rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone and were extended for another year earlier this month.