The United States wants to freeze assets of exiled Liberian president Charles Taylor, UN diplomats said today.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to appeal for additional UN Security Council sanctions against Taylor, who went into exile in Nigeria last August under US pressure during a rebel siege of the Liberian capital.
He is accused of fomenting warfare in west Africa and using government funds to enrich himself.
Mr Powell was in New York for a two-day donors conference on Liberia, sponsored by the United Nations, the United States and the World Bank. The meeting expects to raise close to $500 million for basic infrastructure projects in Liberia over the next two years.
Existing Security Council sanctions against Liberia include a ban on diamond exports, an arms embargo and a travel ban on Taylor and his top associates, accused of fueling civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone through an illicit guns-for-diamonds trade.
UN reports commissioned by the council accused Taylor of diverting government revenues and continue to do so, even from exile. The reports said funds taken illegally from the Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry were invested in real estate.