An 84-year-old German citizen who was convicted in absentia of paedophile crimes in Chile has been arrested in Argentina.

Former Nazi Paul Schaefer has been on the run since 1997.

He also faces charges in Chile of helping the secret police kidnap a political prisoner during the military dictatorship.

Last year a Chilean judge convicted him of sexually abusing 26 minors in the Colonia Dignidad community, cut off from the world by barbed wire.

The community used to have close links with the regime of General Augusto Pinochet and there are accusations that former Gestapo officers taught torture techniques there.

Schaefer set up the commune, renamed Villa Baviera, with families who left Germany with him in 1961. About 280 people still live there. The sect separated men and women and split children from their parents. Until recently Schaefer's followers defended him as a God-like guru but last year some came forward with the abuse allegations.

Chile's government has called on Buenos Aires to expel Schaefer immediately to speed up the legal process.

PHOTO CAPTION

Fugitive religious sect leader and German citizen Paul Schaefer (C) is taken from a police station to be transferred to a prison in Buenos Aires, late March 10, 2005. (REUTERS)