The former warlord is also to face trial for war crimes, according to the Security Council which however did not specify when and how he would be arraigned. Taylor is currently on exile in Nigeria as a guest of the Federal Government.
By yesterday's vote in New York, the noose is being tightened on Mr. Taylor who is suspected to have continued to divert Liberian revenue even from exile. A recent UN report commissioned by the Security Council had said funds taken illegally from the Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry, with major offices in Vienna and Virginia, were invested by Taylor in real estate in South Africa.
The former warlord came on exile to Nigeria in August, last year, under a crisis-containment deal midwifed by President Olusegun Obasanjo when rebels entered the Liberian capital, Monrovia, in a bid to forcefully oust Taylor. He is currently residing in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, where Nigeria is offering him refuge in exile.
The Security Council vote yesterday was against the backdrop of a demand by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell for additional sanctions against Taylor during a UN donor's conference held recently.
Contained in the the resolution is a call for all 191 United Nations members to search for and freeze financial assets "and economic resources owned or controlled directly or indirectly" by Taylor, his wife, Jewell Howard Taylor and his son, Charles Taylor Jr., as well as other associates.
Investigations have shown that Taylor's assets, many of them acquired illegally from government coffers, are scattered all over the world.
Befor Taylor came to Nigeria on exile, he was indicted on war crimes charges by a UN-backed tribunal for his backing of insurgents in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
The Security Council has already imposed a number of restrictions, including a ban on Liberia's diamond exports, an arms embargo and a travel ban on Taylor and his top associates, accused of fueling civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone through an illicit guns-for-diamonds trade.
Taylor's followers are also accused of fomenting unrest in Sierra Leone.
Taylor's departure from Liberia cleared the way for a power-sharing deal between his government and the rebels after a civil war that claimed more than 150,000 lives.
A UN peacekeeping mission, expected to reach 15,000 soldiers, helps enforce the peace accord in Liberia, an impoverished nation of some 3.2 million people founded by freed American slaves.
Early this week, the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone opened its new courthouse to try people involved in one of Africa's bloodiest civil wars in Sierra Leone in which Taylor was fingered as a major backer.
The decade-long conflict in Sierra Leone was characterised by deliberate attacks on civilians, including murder, rape, torture and mutilation. The UN-backed court aims to prosecute top militia leaders from both sides in the war.
Taylor is yet to be apprehended for trial by the court. But the chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone court, David Crane of the US, called on Nigeria to hand Mr Taylor over.
"We want Africans to turn this African over to this African international war crimes tribunal, so he can be fairly tried before the bar, so Africans see that no one is above the law, to include heads of state," he said.