The whereabouts of 60 blind people and a Catholic priest, Father Garry Jenkins, who were abducted from a parish in Tubmanburg, western Liberia, by suspected rebels last week remained unknown, sources in the capital, Monrovia, told IRIN on Tuesday.

"A source in western Liberia, told us that he was at the Catholic mission in Bomi and we received other news from another source that he was in Voinjama," Father James Lee of the office of the Bishop in Monrovia said. The information about the abducted, he added, was however scanty while the motive of abduction was unknown.

Jenkins was last seen in his parish of St. Dominique, from where he was forcefully abducted together with 60 blind people whom he had been caring for, by suspected rebels of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). He had just returned from Monrovia when the incident occurred, Lee said.

The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) in Monrovia, also said little had been heard about the whereabouts of Jenkins. "There are efforts to establish contact with the rebels. We are praying that they will be safe," the National Information Officer, Onesmus Banwon, told IRIN.

Banwon said that the Liberian Defence Minister Daniel Chea on Monday announced that the army would increase its search for the missing civilians.

Chea was reported by news agencies as expressing hope that the priest and the displaced under his care were still alive and in the Tubmanburg area. He said that government forces had regained control of parts of Tubmanburg from rebel hands.

LURD spokesman William Hanson, was reported by the BBC on Monday, as saying that some of their fighters had captured a white man - believed to be 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," BBC reported Hanson as saying.

The LURD opposition group which has fought to topple President Charles Taylor since 1998, was recently accused by human rights groups together with the Monrovia government troops, of perpetrating rights abuses in the country.