Suspected terrorist accounts frozen in 21 countries

Some £4m has been blocked and 50 bank accounts frozen as countries worldwide join the US effort to stop the flow of money to terrorist networks, US President George Bush has said.

The frozen accounts include 30 in this country and 20 overseas, Bush said yesterday in a speech one week after he announced a move to freeze the assets of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and 26 other people and organisations.

‘‘And we’re just beginning,’’ Bush declared.

In his executive order barring Americans from doing business with any of the named individuals or organisations, Bush also promised to shut down US operations of foreign banks that conduct business with bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks, or his associates.

Soon after, foreign ministers from the seven leading industrialized nations - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - agreed to produce a coordinated plan to freeze the assets of terrorist organisations.

And with uncharacteristic speed, the United Nations Security Council last Friday unanimously adopted a US-sponsored resolution requiring all 189 UN-member nations to deny money, support and sanctuary to terrorists.

Under the legally binding resolution, all countries must make the ‘‘wilful’’ financing of terrorism a criminal offence, immediately freeze terrorist-related funds and prevent the movement of individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections.

Nations must also deny terrorists any ‘‘safe haven’’ and speed the exchange of information, especially on the actions and movements of terrorists.

‘‘This is the final piece in pulling together this international coalition in denying terrorists funding,’’ Treasury Department spokeswoman Michele Davis told reporters.

In the week since the US order to freeze assets, actions have been taken with ‘‘amazing speed on every possible front,’’ she said.

Davis declined comment on a report in the New York Times that administration officials were preparing to expand the asset freeze to some two dozen additional charities and other organizations suspected of providing money to bin Laden’s terrorist operations.

As of yesterday, according to the Treasury, governments of 20 nations had ordered banks to block the assets of the 27 individuals and organisations named on the US list.

The 20 include most of the United States’ major economic allies (Italy and Russia are exceptions) as well as Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

US officials acknowledge that the bulk of the suspect money is in accounts outside of the United States.

In France, major bank Credit Lyonnais on Monday froze assets belonging to Al Shamal Islamic Bank, a Sudanese institution linked to bin Laden. The Khartoum-based bank is on lists being circulated to banks by regulatory authorities in Europe.

The 20 countries that have ordered banks to freeze assets on the US list are: Britain, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Venezuela.