Three weeks after signaling it might send American troops to Liberia as part of an international peacekeeping operation, the Bush administration today disputed any suggestion that it was deliberately delaying a decision even as the Liberian capital of Monrovia endured another violent day.

Faced with growing pressure from Liberians, the United Nations and other countries, administration officials sought to tamp down speculation among diplomats and analysts that President Bush was caught in an internal dispute about whether the United States should put combat forces on the ground in Liberia. Administration officials also countered speculation that Mr. Bush was reluctant to risk American lives in Liberia because of qualms among some Republicans in Congress.

Officials said the administration was pressing both the rebels who have pushed into Monrovia and the forces loyal to President Charles G. Taylor to abide by the cease-fire they agreed to last month. The officials said they also continued to work with other West African nations on how to deploy a peacekeeping operation that would involve or be supported by the United States military.

One administration official said the main issue now was working out with the Economic Community of West African States, the umbrella group for governments in the region, what roles the African military forces were capable of playing.

Although there have been differences between the State Department and the Pentagon over the size and nature of any United States peacekeeping mission, the official said the internal differences were not playing a big role in President Bush's consideration.

But proponents of American military involvement in peacekeeping harshly criticized the administration, saying it was moving too slowly.

Some analysts said the United States had delayed so long in making a decision that the rebel forces had concluded that there was nothing to stop them from making another attempt to seize Monrovia and force Mr. Taylor from power.

"I'm becoming increasingly cynical," said Susan E. Rice, assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration. "The dithering and delaying, particularly after raising expectations in Liberia and throughout Africa and in the international community, is bordering on the criminally irresponsible. I don't understand what they're waiting for."

Mr. Bush has said a number of times in recent weeks that the United States would support a peacekeeping effort by the West African nations, but that he had not decided on the size or nature of any American deployment. The president held extensive discussions about the peacekeeping operation during his trip to Africa this month.

Even analysts who said they were sympathetic to the administration's approach suggested that Mr. Bush would have to make a decision soon.

"We've been missing moments in Liberia since 1989, so to suddenly hold this administration responsible for another night of bad news from Monrovia is a little bit much," said Chester A. Crocker, who was assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Reagan administration.

But, Mr. Crocker added, "More days and nights like this will put the administration in a bind because it will inadvertently create the impression that it's changed its mind from the expectations that were built up during the president's trip."

Mr. Bush has had to contend not only with Pentagon reluctance to commit substantial numbers of troops to Liberia at a time when the military is already stretched thin, but also with nervousness among Republicans in Congress about putting American lives on the line in Africa.

One Republican foreign policy aide acknowledged that Liberia's historic ties to the United States and the expanding crisis there would probably result in intervention by the United States, though "the enthusiasm for an extended U.S. military role in Liberia is dim."

The aide said he expected Congress to approve a deployment of "hundreds, not thousands of troops" and only in a protection role that backed up the West African forces.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has been talking daily with Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general. Mr. Annan and Mr. Powell have been negotiating with West African leaders to deploy about 1,500 troops — most of them Nigerian — who would re-establish stability. The plan under discussion then calls for the African troops to be joined by as many as 2,000 American troops.

The plan assumes that Mr. Taylor will make good on his promises to step down and leave the country, and that the American presence will be phased out quickly and replaced by United Nations peacekeeping forces from other nations.

In an interview today with the BBC, Olara A. Otunnu, an under secretary general of the United Nations, said the organization was seeking to designate the peacekeeping operation as one "that can take on those who are violating an agreed cease-fire" and therefore can be established as "a more muscular operation." Mr. Otunnu said that the West African nations were seeking financial support from Washington, and that he was optimistic there "may be some important and positive announcements about the U.S. decision." The Pentagon has moved an amphibious group with 2,000 marines through the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean, and they could steam down Africa's west coast to Liberia.

Mr. Powell and Walter H. Kansteiner, the assistant secretary for African affairs, are scheduled to brief the Congressional foreign affairs committees, at the invitation of lawmakers, on Thursday.

Mr. Bush first involved himself in Liberia last month by calling for Mr. Taylor to step down. Mr. Taylor's ambiguous pledges to leave have complicated the administration's stance. Mr. Taylor has been accused by a tribunal created by the United Nations and Sierra Leone of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Sierra Leone.

A successful peacekeeping operation will depend partly on "getting the circumstances on the ground" in which Mr. Taylor "is extracted or extracts himself," Mr. Crocker said. "He's as slimy as an eel."

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