MONROVIA — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has thrown her support behind Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's bid for re-election in presidential polls next year, she said in a statement Thursday.

"I was delighted to hear that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she will stand for re-election," Clinton told a meeting of state department employees, marking her first year in office, according to a press release issued here.

Clinton praised Sirleaf for her role in combating gender violence, and the creation of special programs for the protection of women and children affected by violence during 14 years of brutal civil wars.

Sirleaf, Africa's first woman president, announced Tuesday she would run for re-election, despite previously promising to serve only one term, in a change of heart that a government spokesman attributed to her successes in office.

Sirleaf's candidature comes despite a report by Liberia?s Truth and Reconciliation Commission naming her among some 50 people who it recommended be banned from holding public office for 30 years for supporting warring factions during the civil war.

The west African nation was ravaged by successive civil wars in which some 250,000 people died between 1989 and 2003, leaving the infrastructure ruined and the economy in tatters.

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