A UN-backed court for Sierra Leone said on Thursday it had asked the Netherlands to host the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor in The Hague for the west African region's stability.

"President of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Justice A. Raja N. Fernando, yesterday made a request to the Government of The Netherlands and the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to facilitate the conduct of the trial," the court said in a statement obtained in Lagos.

"Justice Fernando's letter referred to concerns about the stability in the region should Taylor be tried in Freetown," it said.

The statement said a headquarters agreement would need to be secured to allow a chamber of the special court to sit outside of Sierra Leone. A UN Security Council resolution would also be required by the Dutch government.

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Dirk-Jan Verjeij confirmed that the Sierra Leone court had asked The Hague-based International Criminal Court to make its facilities available for the trial.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said earlier that the court in The Hague would be a "more conducive environment" for Taylor's trial.

Taylor is considered the single most powerful figure behind a series of civil wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone between 1989 and 2003.

The Sierra Leone court has charged Taylor with 11 offences including crimes against humanity and war crimes relating to the civil war.

He was captured on Tuesday in northeast Nigeria when he was trying to cross the border into neighboring Cameroon, about 24 hours after his disappearance from his villa in exile in southeast Nigeria, which at the weekend agreed to hand him over.

He was transferred from Nigeria to Liberia and then on to Sierra Leone where he was jailed in the tribunal's detention facility in Freetown.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)