New Zealand will follow the United Nations in imposing sanctions against Liberia, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff announced today.

"The international community has been deeply concerned for some time about the financial and military support Liberia is giving the Sierra Leone rebel organisation, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

"Liberia's illicit diamond trade which is fuelling the internal conflict in Sierra Leone is particularly disturbing.

"The sanctions prohibit the export of arms and associated material to Liberia, the provision of technical military assistance and training, and the importation of diamonds from Liberia. There is also a ban on entry to New Zealand of certain senior Liberian officials and military personnel and their families," Mr Goff said.

The range of new sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council extend and broaden the UN arms embargo adopted by New Zealand in 1992.

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