Charles Taylor (file photo)

The United States has renewed a plea for U.N. peacekeepers to arrest former Liberian President Charles Taylor if he returns to the country, and to hand him over to a war crimes court in Sierra Leone.

U.S. officials circulated a draft resolution this week that would empower the U.N. mission in Liberia to apprehend Mr. Taylor.

The former president has been living in exile in Nigeria since August 2003, when he resigned under international pressure to bring an end to Liberia's civil war.

He was later indicted by a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal for arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for diamonds during that country's decade-long civil war.

Liberia is in the final stages of preparing for its first post-war elections on October 11.

The elections are designed to replace Liberia's interim government set up after Mr. Taylor was forced into exile in 2003.