The Boston Globe newspaper on Friday retracted a report published earlier this month that Liberia's ex-leader Charles Taylor used to work for the CIA.

The report had claimed that Taylor, the first African head of state to be prosecuted for war crimes by an international tribunal, had a years-long relationship with the US spy agency. The Globe said its report was based on information uncovered through a freedom of information request to the Central Intelligence Agency.

However, in a lengthy correction, the Globe said the front-page story "should not have run in this form."

The newspaper said it had drawn unsupported conclusions and significantly overstepped available evidence when it described former Liberia president Charles Taylor as having worked with US spy agencies.

The story had claimed that the CIA "confirmed its agents and CIA agents worked with Taylor beginning in the early 1980s."

However, in its correction, the daily said "the agency offered no such confirmation."

Nevertheless, "there has long been speculation that Taylor had such a role," the Globe added.

The former Liberian president is awaiting the verdict in his war crimes trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Netherlands.

He is accused on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on claims that he armed Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for illegally mined, so-called "blood diamonds."

The Sierra Leone civil war claimed some 120,000 lives in the 10 years to 2001, with RUF rebels, described by the prosecution as Taylor's "surrogate army," mutilating thousands of civilians by hacking off their limbs.

Taylor pleaded not guilty to all charges.