MONROVIA, Liberia ? President Charles Taylor delivered a farewell address Sunday to a nation bloodied by 14 years of war, declaring himself “the sacrificial lamb” to end what he said was a U.S.-backed rebel war against his besieged regime.

Taylor, sitting solemnly with folded hands, recorded the address in front of a Liberian flag at his home, for broadcast on the evening before he was to hand power to Vice President Moses Blah at one minute before noon (6:59 a.m. CDT) today.

“I do not stop out of fear. I do not stop out of fright. I stop out of love for you, my people,” Taylor declared, adding, “I fought for you. … I say, God willing, I’ll be back.”

He accused the United States of arming Liberia’s rebels, calling it an “American war” and suggesting it was motivated by U.S. eagerness for Liberia’s gold, diamonds and other reserves.

Taylor challenged President Bush “to do something for our people.”

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said he wasn’t aware of a claim by Taylor about the United States and the rebels in Liberia, but that it would be false to claim the United States was arming or funding rebels.

Speaking slowly, with a raspy voice, the Liberian leader declared: “I love this country very much. This is why I have decided to sacrifice my presidency.”

“They can call off their dogs now.” Taylor said. “We can have peace.”

It was a good-bye that few would hear in his desperate, war-divided capital — preoccupied in the search for food, and without fuel to keep radio or TV stations on the air.

Two months of rebel sieges have left well over 1,000 civilians dead in the capital, as insurgents and Taylor’s forces dueled with the city of 1.3 million as its battlefield. The war has left Taylor controlling little but downtown, referred to derisively by rebels as Taylor’s “Federal Republic of Central Monrovia.”

An unidentified boy sells scarce food at the Samuel Doe Sports Stadium, where many refugees are living in Monrovia, Liberia. The government insists that President Charles Taylor will keep his promise to step down today, under pressure from rebels who encircle his capital.

West African leaders extracted Taylor’s promises to leave today, to be followed by exile in Nigeria at some unspecified time after.

At least three West African heads of state, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, were expected for what Taylor’s regime was trying to organize into an hourslong formal resignation ceremony.

The promised resignation did little to ease tensions. The rebels aren’t happy that Taylor’s allies will run the government after he leaves. And many Liberians fear his undisciplined fighters could create more havoc once he leaves.

“Psychologically, he epitomizes all the problems we have,” said Monrovia’s Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis, a vocal Taylor critic. “It sends a powerful message that we have to stop leaning on one person. That man is gone.”

“I hope this brings peace rather than chaos.”

The rebel army has vowed to keep fighting if Blah becomes president. To them, Blah, a feared guerrilla general who trained with Taylor in Libya, is an extension of Taylor’s regime, they say. Taylor, rebels fear, could control Liberia through a shadow government.

Tragic legacy

Taylor recorded the farewell speech for radio at a desk behind shelves piled high with folders. Lit by generators running on fuel scrounged by the presidency, the scene was recorded separately on scratchy audiotape.

By late Sunday, the speech had not been played on local radio in the unlit capital, shattered by shelling and littered with shrapnel, bullet casings and rubbish from looting by Taylor’s forces.

The recording session came as at least one car piled high with luggage pulled out of Taylor’s high-walled private home.

Female members of Taylor’s party danced outside to show support while maimed veterans of 14 years of conflict under Taylor stood by aimlessly.

Support stopped just across the street from the former warlord’s home. “We’ve been praying to Almighty God for this day,” said Theoway Gayweh, among small crowds gathered across the street to watch what they hoped would be the last hours of Taylor’s regime.

Most in government-held Monrovia spent the day scouting for food in markets that had little to offer except leaves.

Others picked their way to churches in ragged Sunday best along water-clogged streets, unrepaired since Taylor, then a rebel leader, launched Liberia into civil war in 1989.

Fighting since then has left more than 100,000 Liberians dead. International aid agencies estimate virtually all of Liberia’s roughly 3 million people have been chased from their home by war, at one time or another, under Taylor.

His rag-tag forces, paid by looting, are accused by rights groups and Liberia’s people of routine raping, robbing, torture, forced labor and summary killings. Rebels, to a lesser extent so far, likewise are accused of abuse.

No apologies

Taylor made no apologies — asking only forgiveness from any he may have wronged, in what have been his years of carnage.

He compared his departure from the presidency to Jesus submitting himself to the Romans.

“If I were the problem — which you know and I know I’m not — I would … become the sacrificial lamb,” Taylor said. “I would become the whipping boy that you should live.”

Perhaps crucially, Taylor made no direct mention of his promise to leave Liberia. Closing his speech, he declared: “I will always remember you wherever I am, and I say, God willing, I will be back.”

Taylor has accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria, but he has also hedged on when he will go. He has said that he would like to remain in politics.