The unidentified man who abandoned his baby girl in the back seat of a livery cab in Queens on Thursday confessed to the cab driver that he couldn’t take care of the child, the driver said on Friday.

At a news conference in Manhattan Klever Sailema, 45, the driver said that after he picked up the man and the girl before 10 a.m., at the corner of Northern Blvd and 106th St. in Corona, the man started to talk. He said that baby’s mother had left four days ago and that he can’t take care of the baby. Then he said he had to make a phone call and asked Sailema to stop at 83^rd street.

Sailema said that the girl started to cry when the man didn’t come back.

The driver said: “Before he left the car he was talking. He told me the mother left the baby. He said, ‘I can’t take care of my baby,’ ”the New York Times reports.

When the man crossed the street to get to a pay phone, Sailema only saw a glimpse of him and then he disappeared.

He said: “In five minutes, the guy didn’t come back. The baby started to cry. I opened the door. I went to comfort the baby.”

The driver took the girl to the nearest firehouse, Engine 289 on 43rd Ave., where a firefighter called police after he listened to Sailema’s story.

The baby girl’s picture was displayed on Friday at a news conference by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and has drawn the wide interest.

The girl, 6 to 7 months-old, was than taken to St. John’s Hospital in Queens and was named “Lourdes” by the medical staff. Thursday night she was released and placed in foster care.

A sketch of the man was released by police hoping that together with a photograph of the baby girl will yield information. The man is depicted as clean-shaven and wearing a knit cap.

According to Debra Cohen, a spokeswoman for St. John’s Queens Hospital, the hospital had received many calls for adoption.

“What is really amazing is you see how many great people out there want to adopt children,” she said.