Nigerian president offers asylum to Taylor

THE leader of Nigeria headed for Liberia yesterday to offer embattled President Charles Taylor asylum in his country, as a US military team prepared to begin a mission to study whether American troops should be sent to Liberia

Taylor the warlord-turned-president who has been indicted on war crimes charges and is holed up in a capital surrounded by rebel forces waited at Monrovia's airport to receive Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Hundreds of Taylor supporters gathered outside, waving banners, as the Liberian leader sporting a cream-coloured suit pulled up to the airport in a limousine.