Citing reasons of security and expediency, the Security Council Friday paved the way for the transfer of former Liberian President and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor to The Hague, Netherlands from Sierra Leone.

The 15-nation council unanimously adopted a Britain-drafted resolution requesting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "to assist, as a matter of priority, in the conclusion of all necessary legal and practical arrangements," for Taylor's transfer.

Taylor is now awaiting trial under the auspices of the UN-backed Special Court of Sierra Leone on charges related to his role in that country's bloody civil war.

The resolution said that the ex-Liberian leader's continued presence in the West African region "is an impediment to stability and a threat to the peace of Liberia and of Sierra Leone" and that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was already too busy to handle the case.

Therefore, the council decided that the Special Court would retain "exclusive jurisdiction over former President Taylor during his transfer to and presence in the Netherlands."

The Netherlands is willing to host the Special Court for the trial, the council noted in its text, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, is willing to allow the use of its premises for the detention of Taylor and the trial proceedings.

Taylor faces an 11-count indictment for crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including sexual slavery and mutilations allegedly committed during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war.

The Special Court, as well as newly-elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, have feared that Taylor's presence in the countries where he allegedly fomented uprisings during the 1990s could shatter the fragile peace that was taking hold in the long-troubled West African region.

Shortly after Taylor's arrest, the Netherlands expressed its willingness to host the Special Court, and just Thursday, the British government said Taylor could serve his prison sentence in Britain if he was convicted.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2006)