Britain to lead action on terror funding

War on Terrorism: Finance

Britain is being offered as a global "clearing house" to crack down on front companies that fund international terrorism, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said yesterday.

A team of forensic accountants is being established to bolster the National Criminal Intelligence Service in their fight to freeze assets of organisations linked to terrorism.

Mr Brown announced that £7m had been frozen from 46 organisations and 16 people, bringing the total assets frozen in Britain since 11 September to £70m.

Mr Brown told MPs he intended to "cut off the supply of funds for terrorism". He said he would appeal to all members of the International Monetary Fund to increase their controls on suspicious movements of money.

"As chair of the UN Counter Terrorism Committee we will offer to co-ordinate a central register for technical assistance to countries implementing anti-terrorist measures," he said.

"Now that asset-tracking centres are being set up in all major financial centres, we will offer London as an international clearing house."