Charles Taylor, the exiled former president of Liberia and one of Africa's most wanted men, has been put on a flight to face a war crimes court in Sierra Leone.

The former warlord was recaptured this morning after apparently fleeing his safe haven in Nigeria. He was reportedly stopped at a remote crossing on Nigeria’s southern border with Cameroon.

Soon after his capture he was repatriated to Monrovia, the Liberian capital. United Nations peacekeepers, some of them in armoured personnel carriers, were deployed around Monrovia's international airport as his plane touched down. was among the officials who received Taylor, a Reuters witness said.

A bailiff from the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone was present as Taylor was arrested on his arrival in his homeland. Tonight officials put him on a flight transfering him to the Special Court in neighbouring Sierra Leone, which has indicted him for crimes against humanity committed during the 1991-2001 civil war there. He is accused fomenting two civil wars in Sierra Leone.

Mystery surrounded his earlier getaway. Reports suggest that Mr Taylor had been driven from his luxury villa in the coastal town of Calabar under an armed escort on Monday night, three days after Nigeria finally bowed to international demands for his surrender, but was allowed to escape en route.

His capture was announced this morning, hours before President Obasanjo of Nigeria was due to meet President Bush in Washington. The White House, which has made bringing Mr Taylor to justice central to its Africa policy, had considered cancelling the presidential summit in response to the escape.

After being seized, Mr Taylor was escorted to military barracks in the Borno state capital Maiduguri and then transferred to a presidential jet waiting at the airport. A Reuters reporter saw Mr Taylor, dressed in a white safari suit, walk onto the runway surrounded by soldiers.

Frank Nweke, the Nigerian Information Minister, told reporters: "Nigerian security forces, on the order of President Obasanjo, last night apprehended former Liberian president Charles Taylor in Gambaru, a Nigerian border town.

"The matter has since been reported to President Obasanjo who is currently in the United States of America where he is scheduled to meet President George Bush later today." He added that Mr Obasanjo had ordered the immediate repatriation of Mr Taylor to Liberia.

Mr Taylor, a one-time warlord and rebel leader, has been charged with backing Sierra Leone's rebel army, consisting mainly of abducted child fighters, who terrorised their victims by chopping off body parts. He allegedly gave his support in exchange for diamonds to finance the conflict in Liberia and is held reponsible for 250,000 deaths.

He has also been accused of instigating the long and brutal civil war in Liberia and of harbouring al-Qaeda suicide bombers who attacked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people.

Nigeria had granted asylum to Mr Taylor since 2003, but finally agreed to hand him over for trial following an official request from Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Three days later, he was said to have escaped.

Doubts have been cast over the veracity of the dramatic escape and recapture story, whose timing has coincided so closely with the presidential visit to the White House.

Mr Taylor's daughter Desiree yesterday appeared to confirm that he had never left their private villa. A reporter for the Nigerian Tribune bumped into Desiree Taylor as she was out walking with a male relative.

Asked if she and her father had been counted by workers conducting a census in the area, she replied: "Yes, we were. All of us were," before walking away.

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