The 12-0 vote on Friday came a month after Secretary General Kofi Annan started seeking a UN mandate for an international force that would help end Liberia's civil war.

"I hope this implies a new political will, a will that, I think, has been absent among the international community," Annan said. "But now that this resolution is passed, I hope we will move ahead with urgent and determined action to help the Liberian people."

The United States sponsored the resolution and wanted a unanimous vote. But France, Germany and Mexico abstained because they opposed a provision exempting American peacekeepers from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. The United States vehemently opposes the international war crimes tribunal, fearing frivolous or political prosecutions of US troops.

The resolution authorized a two-month deployment of the multinational force to be followed by sending UN peacekeepers.

Disputes over who would participate in the multinational force, and who would pay for it, had delayed the deployment.

Nigeria is expected to provide about 1,500 troops - the vanguard of what regional leaders said should be a 5,000-strong foreign force. The first 300 soldiers should arrive Monday with armored vehicles, said Col. Theophilus Tawiah of Ghana, the future force's chief of staff.

Ghana, Senegal and Mali each will send 250 troops thereafter, using UN and US planes, Tawiah said.

It was still unclear whether US Marines on three warships that are expected to arrive off Liberia's coast soon will go ashore.

Meanwhile, West African officials flew into this embattled capital Friday to press President Charles Taylor to cede power after peacekeepers arrive, but he avoided them. Hours later, the UN Security Council authorized a force to maintain order after Taylor departs.

Taylor's evasion of the top-level delegation sparked rumors he fled the country, but the military and Taylor's spokesman denied it. The West African leaders were told the warlord-turned-president went to southeastern Buchanan, which would be his first known journey outside Monrovia since a rebel siege began in June.

Taylor sent a message to the delegation saying he will meet with them Saturday. The delegates hesitated at Liberia's airport under heavy Ghanaian military guard, then traveled into Monrovia ahead of the meeting.

"We're going to wait until we can sit down and talk to him," said Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana's foreign minister.

Taylor's absence delayed delivery of a message from West African heads of state that the first international peacekeepers would deploy in Liberia on Monday and that Taylor, an indicted war-crimes suspect blamed for 14 years of conflict in the region, must leave by Thursday.