Former Liberian President Charles Taylor arrived Tuesday in the Netherlands, where he will be tried on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, officials said.

Taylor had been taken into custody in Sierra Leone before his flight by a UN-chartered plane to the Netherlands. He is due to stand trial in The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his Liberian presidency.

Besides charges which implicates him in backing Sierra Leonean rebels who killed and mutilated civilians during the country's 1991-2002 civil war, Taylor is also accused of instigating violence in Liberia and elsewhere in West Africa.

The UN Special Court for Sierra Leone had asked the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court to host the trial for security reasons.

The United Nations Security Council on June 16 authorized his transfer from the Sierra Leone court to the court in the Netherlands.

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2006)