And what will be their price for putting Mr Kabbah back on his throne?
The British, fearing accusations of neo-colonialism, say it is a matter for Mr Kabbah.
Even with the best will in the world, Mr Kabbah's task, always difficult, is nigh impossible now.
Now a born-again democrat, he is chairman of the National Reconciliation Commission and supports Mr Kabbah's government.
ECONOMIST: Who can, or will, save the country from its savage rebels?
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone rejected a ceasefire offer from rebels until they withdrew from diamond areas.
The army's chosen candidate was defeated and Mr Kabbah, leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party, emerged as president.
But Mr Kabbah came back with almost no money and, without control of the country's diamond fields, there was no prospect of getting any.
From there, Mr Kabbah is expected to fly to a small area of Sierra Leone not in the hands of the soldiers who overthrew him.
For all his electoral legitimacy, Mr Kabbah had almost no power.
Mr Kabbah's return to power did not, however, stop the butchery.
Under last October's Conakry agreement, the junta was supposed to give up power and Mr Kabbah was to return and form a government of national unity.
Last month, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was joined by rebel leaders and international guests at a peace ceremony in an army camp in the capital, Freetown.
Fearful that the chaos may spread, the neighbours, chiefly Nigeria, sent soldiers to support Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, operating under the mandate of the West African Economic Community.
Nor will Sierra Leoneans wholeheartedly welcome the return of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, their elected president, who has lived in exile in Guinea since a coup last May.
The force was initially bolstered by Nigerian troops, who were there as a follow-up to Ecomog, the West African peace-keeping mission that restored President Kabbah to power in 1998.
But Alhaji Unisa Alim Sesay, who was at the meeting with Kabbah, claimed that Thompson is not painting a true picture of what transpired during last week's meeting with the country's president.
BBC: SPORT | Football | African | Sierra Leone crisis continues
The country was tugged back from the brink of utter chaos two years ago, when 800 British paratroopers landed in Freetown to prevent the RUF from over-running the city and toppling Mr Kabbah's government.
One person who certainly does not object is Mr Kabbah, who was elected in a flawed poll in 1996, and whom most Sierra Leoneans regard as a weak leader dependent on international support to stay in power.
It financed a meeting for the exiled Sierra Leonean government this week, and Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the country's elected president who was overthrown by a coup in May, has been invited to take Sierra Leone's chair in Edinburgh.
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