UNITED NATIONS – Al Qaeda and a former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, who was indicted as a war criminal, are cooperating in an attempt to destabilize western Africa, according to a prosecutor at a criminal tribunal set by the United Nations.

David Crane, a prosecutor with the U.N. tribunal in charge of prosecuting war crimes in Sierra Leone, including a 17-count charge against the ousted Liberian leader, told reporters yesterday that Mr. Taylor is harboring Al Qaeda fugitives, including terrorists involved in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Mr. Crane also said that Mr. Taylor receives financial support from Al Qaeda.

As part of a deal facilitated by America and Britain, Mr. Taylor left Liberia in August 2003 and was granted asylum in Nigeria. But Mr. Crane said that Mr. Taylor frequently travels outside Nigeria – a violation of the agreement’s terms.

In one such trip at the end of February, according to Mr. Crane, Mr. Taylor flew to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to meet an Al Qaeda courier, Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil. Mr. Fadhil, who appears on the FBI most-wanted list of terrorist financiers, was carrying an unspecified amount of money that had been sent to Mr. Taylor from a Dubai-based bank.

The transaction was intended to support a Taylor-backed presidential candidate in this fall’s Liberian presidential election, Francis Galawolo. Soon after the money arrived, Mr. Galawolo announced his candidacy, according to Mr. Crane. Mr. Taylor, described by the prosecutor as a “war criminal, terrorist, and meddler,” also used “blood diamonds” to finance other destabilizing activities in the region, such as the January 19 attempt on the life of Guinea’s president, Lansana Conte.

In May 2002, as the Sierra Leone tribunal was mapping its prosecution, Mr. Crane said, “We ran smack dab in the middle of Al Qaeda.” Prosecutors have attempted to interest the American authorities ever since. “This evidence has been provided to the appropriate people so they can make the appropriate decision,” the top investigator for the tribunal, Allan White, said yesterday.

In the past, the U.N. tribunal team accused America of not acting quickly enough on its tips. “In my opinion, the FBI has not interest in pursuing Al Qaeda in West Africa,” Mr. White recently told U.S. News and World Report. “They have discounted this from day one.”

A recent meeting with President Bush has not convinced Nigeria’s President Obasanjo to hand over Mr. Taylor.

Guinea “will soon fall” if nothing is done, Mr. White predicted yesterday. “It is clear that until Charles Taylor is brought to justice, that he will be an immediate, clear, and present danger” to peace in the entire region, he said.