UN says Taylor still trying to run Liberia

A top United Nations envoy has warned that Liberia's ousted president Charles Taylor was still trying to run the country from exile and that Nigeria may want to reconsider its agreement to serve as his new home.

Jacques Klein, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's special representative for Liberia, said Mr Taylor was believed to have taken an estimated $US1 billion in government money with him, leaving the western African nation with an empty treasury as it tries to start rebuilding after 14 years of civil war.

Mr Klein said Mr Taylor was believed to be still taking kickbacks on Liberian purchases of fuel and other goods through intermediaries and there was "good evidence that over the past three weeks at least one or two government officials and several business leaders had gone to Nigeria to see him".