A team of US military experts was to head for Liberia today as President Mr Charles Taylor weighed his least painful exit from his ruined West African country under US pressure to quit.
The US advance team is a possible precursor to a much bigger deployment by the United States in a country founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago and now laid waste by nearly 14 years of violence.
Mr Taylor holds barely a third of Liberia and is wanted for war crimes by an international court. A top Nigerian official said the Liberian president had accepted an offer of asylum from Nigerian President Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, due in Monrovia today.
Ahead of his visit to Africa this week, US President George W. Bush has told Mr Taylor he must leave. But the former warlord wants a peacekeeping force in place first to prevent rebels or his own volatile fighters from running wild.
A spokesman for the US European command in Stuttgart said a team of 10 to 15 military experts would set off for Liberia. "(It) is a humanitarian assistance team, and will report back on the situation so the commanders will be able to make a better decision on what to do next," Mr John Tomassi said.
The United States is still debating whether to send hundreds of American soldiers to Africa, 10 years after a bloody exit from Somalia. West African countries have pledged 3,000 troops, but want US forces to help them bring that up to 5,000.