FREETOWN (BBC) - Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor has left Sierra Leone on a plane ahead of his trial in The Hague.

The UN-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone said he was taken by helicopter to Freetown's airport from his prison cell where he has been since his capture.

Taylor faces 11 war crimes charges after allegedly backing rebels in the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war.

Last week, the United Kingdom offered to host any jail term he may serve, paving the way for his transfer.

The Dutch government agreed to host Taylor's trial, as long as he was imprisoned in another country if he was convicted.

The trial is due to take place in the facilities of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but it will be legal officials assigned to the Sierra Leone tribunal who will be responsible.

The proceedings have been moved because of concerns that a trial in Sierra Leone itself could provoke instability there.

The tribunal's chief prosecutor once described Taylor as the third most wanted war crimes suspect in the world.

Both Sierra Leone and Liberia are recovering from years of conflict, in which Taylor played a central role.

He is accused of funding Sierra Leone's former rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) by selling diamonds on their behalf and buying weapons for them.

The RUF were notorious for mutilating civilians, by hacking off their arms or legs with machetes.