MONROVIA, Liberia, July 7 (UPI) -- Liberian President Charles Taylor will step down and accept asylum in Nigeria, the Washington Post reported Monday.
The announcement, issued after a meeting with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, appears to clear a major obstacle for the deployment of U.S. troops to Liberia.
President Bush has repeatedly made Taylor's departure a condition for sending a U.S. peacekeeping force.
Although Taylor has previously promised to leave, his pledge Monday carried both a specific destination and the weight of Obasanjo, the respected leader of Africa's most populous nation. Neither leader specified a date for Taylor's departure but both emphasized it will be sooner rather than later.
Taylor's announced exit also ignited fresh concerns about whether he will escape trial for alleged war crimes. A U.N. court indicted him last month for crimes against humanity and other violations of international law in neighboring Sierra Leone, where Taylor backed rebels notorious for severing the limbs of civilians.
