"Al-Qaida has been in west Africa. It continues to be in west Africa, and Charles Taylor has been harboring members of al-Qaida," Crane said, adding that he believes west Africa is going to become the next Afghanistan. Crane called for Taylor to be handed over for prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity to prevent further destabilization in the region, especially in Guinea.

Taylor gave up the presidency and fled to Nigeria in August 2003, part of a peace deal brokered as rebels besieged the Liberian capital, Monrovia. He was later indicted by the war-crimes tribunal for backing Sierra Leone rebels in a vicious 10-year insurgency in the diamond-rich nation, but Nigeria has refused to hand him over, saying it granted him political asylum. Crane spoke at a news conference after the president of the tribunal briefed the U.N. Security Council on its funding, security and prosecution problems. Afterward, the council issued a statement underlining "the importance of ensuring that all those who have been indicted by the court appear before it." The chief prosecutor said he has spent several weeks talking to council members about a political solution that would enable Nigeria to turn Taylor over for prosecution. One possibility under discussion is a Security Council resolution that would praise Nigeria for taking Taylor out of Liberia but note his regional meddling, "his activities with terrorists," and his alleged war crimes, and call for his hand over, Crane said.

The alleged links between Taylor and al-Qaida, and pressure from the United States, the European Union and other countries, could give new impetus to finding a political solution to put Taylor before the tribunal. According to Crane, Taylor flew in late February to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where he met Francis Garlawolo, one of his former legal counselors. Garlawolo shortly afterward announced that he was running for president in the October election in Liberia, Crane said, adding that money from an al-Qaida courier was believed to have been exchanged during that meeting. Alan White, the court's chief investigator, said the alleged courier, Mohamed Mustafa Fadhil, was a Middle East businessman who was a frequent visitor of Taylor's.

Crane said Fadhil also had been on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. It listed Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil, saying he had been indicted in the southern district of New York on Dec. 16, 1998 for his alleged involvement in the Aug. 7, 1998, U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and for conspiring to kill U.S. nationals. White said the tribunal's investigators also started receiving "credible, reliable information" in November from sources and witnesses they had been dealing with for three years about a plot by Taylor and others to destabilize the region, particularly Guinea. The tribunal reported the plot in November, and on Jan. 19 "it went down exactly the way that our sources reported it was going to occur" -- an assassination attempt was made against Guinea's President Lansana Conte, White said.