The long-awaited handover is seen as vital to ending 14 years of almost uninterrupted war in Liberia beginning with a seven-year rebellion sparked by Taylor in 1989 that left 200,000 dead.

Taylor made clear he felt pressured to step down and lashed out at the United States and regional powers for demanding that he go into exile in Nigeria, far removed from Liberian politics.

"I leave you with these parting words: God willing, I will be back," Taylor said as he wrapped up a rambling, unscripted farewell speech.

Nigerian officials, meanwhile, said they were preparing for Taylor's arrival in Abuja immediately after the handover ceremony with protocol officers at Abuja's international airport laying out a ceremonial red carpet.

A plush mansion in Calabar, capital of Nigeria's southeastern Cross River State, is being prepared to accommodate Taylor and his entourage.

The authorities in Calabar, in the far south-east of Nigeria, have been told to prepare for a distinguished guest, according to the BBC online news service.

“Perched on the edge of Diamond Hill - in Calabar's historic government quarter - is an elegant gray villa, with slim pillars decorating its facade.

“Just up the hill is the Old Residency, a wood and cast iron creation from which a British governor once ruled the whole of southern Nigeria, and next to that the lodge where Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo stays when he is in town.

“The villa may not be as imposing as Liberia's executive mansion, but it has fine views out over the wide Cross River and the roofs of Old Creek town,” according to the BBC.

In his speech, Taylor compared himself to Jesus Christ, saying he accepted the role of "sacrificial lamb" and was ready to be the international community's "whipping boy."

He was going, he said, because "the Liberian people have suffered far too long," warning other nations not to take advantage of the situation to curtail Liberia's constitution, or dissolve its supreme court or its national assembly.

Presidents John Kufuor of Ghana, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and the Nigerian foreign minister were in attendance to witness the handover of power from Taylor to his former comrade-in-arms Blah.

Kufuor said that Blah would head an interim government until handing over power to a national transitional government in October.

He said parties at ongoing peace negotiations in Accra had decided on a "two-tier" system, with Blah heading the "first tier" interim government arrangement until October.

"It (the first tier) will terminate on the second Tuesday in October this year," Kufuor said.

A pugnacious Taylor said he was the victim of an international conspiracy and warned his African peers that they too could meet his fate.

"You must be careful. Decisions are being taken in foreign capitals," he warned African leaders attending the handover but added that he was happy despite being forced out as his "people will live" and "they will see peace."

"This should be the end of the war," he said, making a "step that will bring relief to the nation."

In Monrovia, under siege for two months, Liberians were waiting with guarded hope for Taylor's departure.

Blah urged the country's two rebel groups to "work with us so that the people of Liberia can know peace" and called for west African peacekeepers who began arriving on Monday to fully deploy in the country.

Soldiers from the west African peacekeeping force ECOMIL, as well as South African troops, were massed near the presidential palace.

Nigerian-led ECOMIL troops, with armored vehicles, also lined the main roads and were guarding key intersections in the city, home to around 250,000 displaced people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Taylor, who launched a civil war in Liberia in 1989 and then was elected its president in 1997, is indicted by a UN-mandated court in Sierra Leone for war crimes during that neighboring country's civil war.

His successor Blah is a fellow former guerrilla leader who fought alongside Taylor in a Libyan-trained rebel movement, which triggered the 1989 conflict.

But Taylor and his cronies have been challenged for nearly five years by a new generation of rebels, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD).

Now LURD and an allied rebel faction control four-fifths of the once-prosperous nation of 3.3 million people, and hold Monrovia in a choke hold, blocking food supplies to a starving population.

LURD said Monday it would only turn over Monrovia's port, crucial to resolving the capital's humanitarian crisis, to "duly authorized peacekeepers or other internationally recognized and authorized agencies" once Taylor had gone.

But the rebels have also said they reject Blah's nomination, accusing him of being from the same mould as former warlord Taylor.

Both the United States, which helped found Liberia in the early 19th century as a homeland for freed American slaves, and the west African states leading the peace process, hope the departure will be a turning point in the conflict.